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Kuwait's KIA looking at Asia investment -finmin

Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:20am EDT

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KUWAIT, July 17 (Reuters) - Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund is not planning to invest in any future agency debt of U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FMN.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N), the country's finance minister said on Thursday.

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Speaking to reporters after meeting his Japanese counterpart, Mustapha al-Shamali said the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) was considering boosting investments in Asia, particularly in Japan, India and China.

KIA, which manages Kuwait's massive oil generated-assets, is looking at stocks, bonds and real estate in Japan, and all sectors in India and China, Shamali said.

"China, India and Asia in general are new markets, growing and promising markets for the future, and investment returns are good there," he said.

"We were looking purely into financial and investment sectors and many investments went to equities and bonds. Now we are thinking in bigger sectors, maybe we can go to real estate," he said when asked about investments specifically in Japan.

When asked about sectors Kuwait was considering for investment in China and India, he said: "All sectors, we are not looking into a specific sector... all areas are open." (Reporting by Ulf Laessing and Rania El Gamal; Editing by Andrew Marshall)



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