Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), Emirate’s state-owned sovereign wealth fund, has no intention to part with its stakes in Citigroup and Merrill Lynch – reported Zawya.com. Mustafa al-Shamali, finance minister, said: The KIA has no intention of exiting from Merrill Lynch and Citigroup in the near future as its (investment) policy is based on a long-term vision.
Reportedly, in 2007, KIA bought stakes of worth $3 billion in Citigroup and $2 billion in Merrill Lynch, which was acquired by Bank of America in 2008.
However, Kuwaiti MPs have often criticised it for investing in the two battered US banks, as the stakes’ value had dropped to less than $3 billion due to the global financial turmoil. In February this year, the government has claimed that the holdings of the funds lost about $33 billion in value, reported the newspaper.
