KUWAIT CITY, July 15: The latest update of the values of assets compiled by the International Institute of Global Sovereign Funds indicates the Kuwaiti Sovereign Fund (Al- Ajyal Fund) has increased to about $803 billion from $750 billion last April, reports Al- Qabas daily. Thus the “Ajyal Fund” stands fifth in the world and second in the Arab world after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which takes the top spot among Arab countries and fourth in the world, with an asset value of $853 billion bringing the difference between the Ajyal Fund and ADIA to $50 billion. According to the institute’s updated data, the arrangement and values of the assets of global sovereign funds have not witnessed significant changes at the present time, except for the increase in the value of the assets of the Al-Ajyal Fund.

The institute said the Norwegian Sovereign Fund maintained its global leadership with assets exceeding $1.371 trillion, followed by the China Investment Authority with assets of more than $1.350 trillion, while the Chinese SAFE Fund came in third place with assets of more than $1 trillion. The classification of the Saudi Public Investment Fund on the GIC fund of Singapore advanced to sixth place, with the value of the assets of the Saudi fund increasing to $700 billion now, compared to $650 billion in April, while the value of the assets of the Singaporean fund, which came in seventh place, remained at $690 billion.

The Hong Kong Sovereign Fund ranked eighth in the world, with assets of more than $514 billion, followed by Singapore’s Temask Fund, ninth, with assets of more than $492 billion, while the Qatari Sovereign Fund came tenth in the world, with assets remaining constant at $475 billion. The International Institute of Global Sovereign Funds revealed that the assets of the total sovereign funds classified with it remained stable at more than $11.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti Sovereign Wealth Funds, the oldest and largest funds in the world, are outperformed by its more ambitious peers in neighboring countries and according to “Bloomberg” news agency the sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East are emerging as investors heading to acquire some of the largest investment deals, reports Al-Anba daily. Bloomberg indicated that the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), which manages the $700 billion sovereign wealth fund, invested only $2.8 billion last year, compared to $25.9 billion by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and $20.7 billion by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the agency quoted Diego Lopez, a consultant at data firm SWF Global as saying.