ADIA ranked largest sovereign wealth fund

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has been ranked as the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with an estimated $627bn of assets under management, a new report has said.

ADIA, whose assets range from Citigroup bonds to a stake in London’s Gatwick Airport, scored four out of a possible ten points for transparency in the US-based Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute’s latest report.

Over one third of the world’s top 20 investment funds are currently based in the Middle East and own an estimated $1731.5bn of assets under management, said the report.

Saudi Arabia’s SAMA Foreign Holdings was ranked the world’s fourth largest investment fund with an estimated $472.5bn of assets under management behind Norway’s Government Pension Fund – Global ($560bn) and China’s SAFE Investment Company ($567.9bn).

Kuwait Investment Authority was given the highest score for transparency (6) for a Middle East sovereign wealth fund followed by Qatar Investment Authority (5). Norway’s Government Pension Fund – Global, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Alaska Permanent Fund and Australian Future Fund all scored ten out of ten for transparency.

At the end of 2011, around 60 percent of total sovereign investment funding, which amounts to some $4.8 trillion worldwide, was driven by oil and gas revenues.