Читать книгу The Hunt for Unicorns - Winston Ma - Страница 37

For decades, sovereign investment funds preferred to remain in the shadows. Little was known about them and their nature as long-term passive investors helped keep it this way. In recent years, however, the nature of sovereign investors has begun to evolve. Alongside accumulating a large and growing pool of capital, once very passive holders of government wealth, sovereign investors have transformed operations in three critical ways: attracting better talent, adding more asset classes, and expanding into active investment strategies.

The Canadian pension funds, for example, have rebalanced to favor direct investments into alternative assets, including tech startups traditionally viewed as out of SIF's comfort zone. For example, at the end of the 1990s, CPPIB invested close to 100% in Canada; today, that figure is only 15%. The fund is global in its pursuit, placing tech bets in India from its office in Mumbai, among overseas offices in multiple continents. Also headquartered in Toronto, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) has established a ventures arm that directly invests in early stage tech companies and has dedicated venture teams in Silicon Valley as well as London. Notably, the Canadians have been savvy players in Washington, successfully lobbying for tax treatment on an equal footing to US pension plans.

Combining big spending on direct investments with promotion of ESG goals, a pair of deep pocketed SIFs, GIC and ADIA, have teamed up to back green, sustainable energy in the developing world. Both participated in 2019 in a nearly $500 million equity round to back a pair of green energy projects totaling $2 billion in India. This brings their aggregate investment to $2.2 billion in the issuer, Greenko Holding. With the latest round, Greenko Holding will be developing the two (2.4 GW total) projects, each with wind and solar generation and hydro energy storage. GIC is majority shareholder of Greenko, which holds the record for Asia's largest green bond issuance at $1 billion.