Middle East SWFs seen tripling to $5 tln by 2010
DUBAI, May 26 (Reuters) - Sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East could see a threefold surge in assets under management to $5 trillion within two years, according to a report issued on Monday.
The government-owned funds are estimated to be currently worth more than $2 trillion, thanks to high energy and commodity prices.
A.T. Kearney, a management consulting firm, estimates the value of such assets globally was closer to $3.3 trillion in 2007 and predicted it would rise to $15 trillion in 2015.
Middle Eastern wealth funds account for half of last year's total figure, or $1.65 trillion, the firm said.
The world's biggest wealth fund is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which has $875 billion worth of assets under management, while Saudi Arabia's fund has $300 billion, making it the fourth-largest, the report said. "With $4 trillion available in the Middle East for investment and very healthy Sovereign Wealth Funds, the outlook for economic development in the region is very positive," Alexander von Pock, the firm's manager of financial services, said in the report. (Writing by Ola Galal, editing by Will Waterman)
