SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS 2019 MANAGING CONTINUITY, EMBRACING CHANGE SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS 2019 Editor: Javier Capapé, PhD Director, Sovereign Wealth Research, IE Center for the Governance of Change Adjunct Professor, IE University 6 SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS 2019. PREFACE Index 11 Executive Summary. Sovereign Wealth Funds 2019 23 Managing Continuity...Embracing Change: Sovereign Wealth Fund Direct Investments in 2018-2019 37 Technology, Venture Capital and SWFs: The Role of the Government Forging Innovation and Change 55 SWFs in a Bad Year: Challenges, Reporting, and Responses to a Low Return Environment 65 The Sustainable Development Goals and the Market for Sustainable Sovereign Investments 83 SWFs In-Depth. Mubadala: The 360-degree Sovereign Wealth Fund 97 Annex 1. Sovereign Wealth Research Ranking 2019 103 Annex 2. Sovereign Wealth Funds in Spain PREFACE 8 SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS 2019. PREFACE Preface In 2019, the growth of the world economy slowed by very little margin for stimulating the economy to 2.9%, the lowest annual rate recorded since the through the fiscal and monetary policy strategies. subprime crisis. This was a year in which the ele- In any case, the developed world is undergoing its ments of uncertainty that had previously threate- tenth consecutive year of expansion, and the risks ned the stability of the cycle began to have a more of relapsing into a recessive cycle appear to have serious effect on economic expansion. Among these been allayed in view of the fact that, in spite of re- elements, there are essentially two – both of a poli- cord low interest rates, inflation and debt remain at tical nature – that stand out from the rest. The first moderate levels. is the trade war between the world’s leading eco- nomy, United States and its nearest contender, Chi- While 2018 saw a recovery in growth in the group na, which led to a dangerous tariff escalation. The of emerging countries, their economic activity in second was the confirmation of the United King- 2019 once again slowed to 3.7% as a whole. China dom’s withdrawal from the European Union, who- continues to astound the world with the speed of se long denouement plunged the economy and the the transformation of its productive and business companies of the old continent into uncertainty. model, but is also an example of the difficulties of However, the negative impact of both these factors maintaining growth rates after achieving a certain is clearly waning, and, coupled with the continued level of development. Latin America’s growth in its favorable financial conditions, suggests a return to GDP was almost imperceptible, which is a matter of growth of the world economy of 3.3% for 2020 and concern 1in a region that requires more growth and 3.4% for 2021. an adequate distributive policy to resolve its pres- sing social challenges. In any case it is worth noting Advanced economies saw their growth rates fall the divergence in the behaviour of the two major re- from 2.2% to 1.7% last year, a situation experienced gional economies, with Brazil emerging from a long by all the major economies with the exception of period of stagnation in recent years while Mexico is Japan. Growth in the United States fell sixty basic struggling to shake off its sluggish growth. points, tax support from the Trump administration is now tailing off, and we are unlikely to see an up- In the increasingly complex choreography of the turn in GDP growth in the present election year. The world economy, sovereign wealth funds (SWF) play Eurozone grew only 1.2% due to the negative im- an ever more important role due to their capaci- pact of the cooling of activity in the German power- ty to channel large volumes of savings toward in- house, which saw modest growth of only 0.5%. Eu- vestment and hence boost economic growth. This rope is also facing the tough challenge of achieving role is analyzed in depth in the study on sovereign higher growth rates in a scenario characterized funds, a joint project between ICEX-Invest in Spain 9 and IE University, whose result is the report you This eighth edition takes a closer look at the greater now hold in your hands, and which has become a participation of SWFs in the most disruptive tech- leading instrument of analysis for the institutio- nologies, and also analyzes one of the most promi- nal investment industry worldwide. The aim of sing and novel aspects of the activity of these funds: this project is primarily to analyze the strategies, their role as responsible investors in the Sustaina- operations and trends that feature these public in- ble Development Goals (SDGs). The achievement of vestment vehicles. The present edition also takes a the SDGs represents a business opportunity in areas broad look at how these institutional investors are such as the agroindustrial sector, smart cities, ener- becoming transformed into agents for change in gy and health. SWFs, as they are market-oriented the key areas of our time, such as technology and government-controlled funds, might play a key role sustainability. in involving private investment in the development of the 2030 Agenda. In 2018 and 2019 alone, SWFs The 2019 Sovereign Wealth Funds report shows that invested in sustainability-linked assets with a total these funds are defined by continuity and change. value close to 16 billion dollars. Continuity because they make it possible to main- tain strong investment activity and are seen as a In short, as in previous years we hope you will find factor of stabilization in the investment cycle due the present document of interest and that it will to their relative immunity to the volatility of the continue to serve as a useful tool for public policy economic situation. From January 2018 to Septem- decision-makers and professionals in the invest- ber 2019 the total value of SWF transactions was ment industry worldwide. 139 billion dollars. And change because they allow the rapid adaptation to the technology revolution thanks to increased investment in sectors such as biotechnology, software, fintech, data, mobility, e-commerce and health. SWFs are increasingly ac- ting not only as financial investors seeking a return in the medium and long term, but also as instru- ments of public policy that drive the transforma- tion of the productive sector of their economies. In this context, and in line with these objectives, María Peña Mateos SWF investments in Spain have multiplied in recent Chief Executive Officer, ICEX years, offering evidence of Spain’s attractiveness to Susana Malcorra these investors. Dean, School of Global and Public Affairs, IE University EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 12 SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS 2019. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS 2019: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE Executive Summary. Sovereign Wealth Funds 2019: Continuity and Change 1. MANAGING CONTINUITY AND vestment horizons to enhance long-term risk-ad- EMBRACING CHANGE: SOVEREIGN WEALTH justed returns. Partnering with a wide array of FUND DIRECT INVESTMENTS IN 2018-2019 institutional investors, SWFs have diversified direct The 2018-2019 sample includes 267 transactions investment programs away from traditional sectors invested by SWFs. Of these, 251 represent indepen- and deployed capital in scale to technologies and dent transactions, i.e. invested by at least one so- companies capable of driving disruptive innova- vereign fund. The total value of these transactions tion in industries such as biotechnology, software, during the period from January 2018 through Sep- fintech, data, mobility, e-commerce, and healthca- tember 2019 was approximately $139 billion. Im- re. Doing so affords them the ability to hedge dis- portantly, this sample includes only deals that had ruption risk, while enhancing their own capacity to formally closed and that had received required re- understanding the forces driving macro- and mi- gulatory approvals. By way of comparison, our of cro-economic change. 2018 sample alone includes 178 deals, including 18 real estate transactions attributable to Norway’s This evolving inversion in sector allocation notwi- Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), while thstanding, prevailing fund-level activity, scale and our 2017 sample included 208 transactions. Throu- geographic preference have remained consistent gh September 2019 we count 101 deals, including 12 with earlier-established SWF practices. The domi- pending transactions, amounting to approximately nant direct SWF investors in our 2018-19 sample $17 billion in total value. Our research also identi- include Temasek,1 GIC, UAE’s Mubadala, Norway’s fied a number of divestitures not incorporated into GPFG, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in the our overall deal count. top five, followed in deal count by Qatar Invest- ment Authority, Australia Future Fund, the Ireland Direct SWF investment activity reveals both conti- Strategic Investment Fund, the Russia Direct In- nuity and change. Change is characterized by the vestment Fund, the China Investment Corp (CIC), inversion in sector allocation. Sovereigns, led by and Khazanah. Leadership in activity remains sta- Singaporean funds Temasek and GIC, embrace the ble over the last 5 years, and of course, this should dynamism of rapidly evolving technologies in sec- come as no surprise as it is the largest SWFs that tors that allow them to exploit their extended in- have the capacity and scale – mandate permitting - to undertake direct investment programs. Top 5 sectors 2018-2019 Technology Lie Sciences Real Estate Services Inrastructure Total deals 81 45 43 36 19 Deal count (%) 0 19 11 1 1 Deal size (%) 1 1 19 7.6% 112 Source: S W R IE C G C SNET F S, T U T 2019 S 13 Moreover, constraints – whether imposed by scale, Biotechnology investments outpace any other te- mandate, or even politics – necessitate that most chnology sub-sector by the number of deals.