http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=59969Arab nations eye control of U.S. companies
Ready to move with $1.7 trillion in windfall profits from oil-price spike

_____

Posted: January 31, 2008
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
C 2008 WorldNetDaily. com

Sovereign Wealth Funds in six Persian Gulf countries – including Kuwait, the
United Arab Emirates and Qatar – have now amassed $1.7 trillion, positioning
them for attempts to control major
<http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=59969#> banks and
securities firms in the U.S.

The funds are ready to invest petrodollar earnings worldwide as their
managers examine equity plays on businesses around the globe, Business Week
reports.

Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Persian Gulf are comprised of
government-controll ed
<http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=59969#> investment
portfolios amassed largely as a result of the windfall profits from oil
climbing to record highs. Increasingly, U.S. investment bankers are
traveling to the Middle East to meet what Business Week calls the “New Kings
of Wall Street.” The fund managers include:

* Shiek Khalifi Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman and managing director of
the $875 billion asset Abu Dhabi Investment
<http://www.wnd. com/redir/ r.asp?http: //www.adia. ae/> Authority that in late
November invested
<http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=58890> $7.5
billion for a 4.9 percent equity stake in Citigroup.

* Bader M. Al Sa’ad is the managing director of the $213 billion asset
Kuwait <http://www.wnd. com/redir/ r.asp?http: //www.kia. gov.kw/kia>
Investment Authority, a fund which has become the cornerstone investor in
the Industrial and
<http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=59969#> Commercial
Bank of China, China’s largest commercial bank.

* Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabir Al-Thani is Qatar’s prime minister
and head of the Qatar Investment Authority, a $50 billion investment fund
that in September bought 20 percent of the London Stock Exchange.

* Soud Ba’alawy, the executive chairman of Dubai Group, a financial
conglomerate which includes the Dubai Investment Group that through Borse
Dubai
owns a
<http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=57749> 19.9
percent stake in Nasdaq, the second largest securities exchange in the U.S.

Among U.S. companies, including many of the largest banks and financial
institutions, there are many candidates that now or soon may be more than
willing to receive capital infusions from foreign sources, including Middle
East Sovereign Wealth Funds.

The Wall
<http://www.wnd. com/redir/ r.asp?http: //online. wsj.com/public/ resources/ docum
ents/info-retro- subpar20070925. htm> Street Journal at the end of December
published a list of U.S. companies with earning problems resulting from the
sub-prime meltdown, the housing slowdown and the credit crunch experienced
as the U.S. economy slowed down in the fourth quarter last year.

The Wall Street Journal list included:

* Ambac Financial Group expected a $5.4 billion pretax write-down in
the fourth quarter 2007 and planned to cut its quarterly dividend by
two-thirds;

* American International Group, or AIG, saw a $2.54 billion after-tax
drop in the value of investments in assets that are backed at least in part
by sub-prime mortgages;

* J.P. Morgan Chase reported fourth quarter 2007 net earnings fell 34
percent as it recorded $1.3 billion in markdowns on sub-prime positions and
saw higher credit costs;

* <http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=59969#>
Washington Mutual expected to record a fourth quarter 2007 loss on a $1.6
billion goodwill write-down on the value of its home loans business;

* <http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=59969#>
Wells Fargo announced that fourth quarter net income fell 38 percent on a
$1.4 billion reserve for credit losses.

* On the list were several financial institutions that have already
showed up in the market exploring foreign investment capital, including Bank
of America
, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

Equity investments by Sovereign Wealth Funds differ from traditional private
or public investment in that the equity purchased is not owned by a private
investor or public holder of listed common stock but by a foreign government
that owns the stock as a government entity.

Foreign investments in U.S. companies are subject to approval from the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CIFUS, organized
within the U.S. Treasury.

As WND <http://www.worldnet daily.com/ news/article. asp?ARTICLE_ ID=48991>
reported, a national outrage broke out in 2006 when a Dubai company, Dubai
Ports World, proposed to take over operation of some 22 U.S. ports, as part
of an acquisition involving the London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam
Navigation.

In the closing months of last year, foreign investments announced to help
major U.S. banks and financial institutions received, by comparison, almost
no public outcry. Many believe that’s largely because the infusion of
foreign capital was perceived by the public as necessary as troubled U.S.
financial institutions scrambled to find capital required to continue
operations under asset and reserve requirements.

[Non-text portions of this message

 

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