THE INDEPENDENT: Manchester City is one of many companies to tap the deep pockets of private and state-run funds from capital-rich regions. But should these investors be a cause of concern?
From the former Thai prime minister to a Middle Eastern property tycoon, Manchester City's changing ownership is emblematic of the shifting balance of power of the global economy.
The club confirmed yesterday that it is to be sold by Thaksin Shinawatra to the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, fronted by Dr Sulaiman al-Fahim, the chief executive of Hydra Properties.
The deal is one of many. Not only are football clubs increasingly snapped up by foreign investors, from Roman Abramovich's Chelsea to Malcolm Glazer at Manchester United, but businesses across all sectors are increasingly attracting fortunes made in booming developing economies.
It is not an entirely new trend – the Chinese bought MG Rover as long ago as 2002 – but it is gathering pace. India's Tata Group picked up Jaguar Land Rover for £1.15bn in March, and in May, the Malaysian tycoon Ananda Krishnan took a 20 per cent stake in Johnston Press under the newspaper group's £212m emergency fundraising proposal.
But the deepest pockets, and the biggest shoppers, are the sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). Worth just $2bn (£1.1bn) in 2003, the value of SWFs rocketed to $92bn by last year, according to Monitor Group. The funds made some $58bn-worth of investments in the first three months of this year – more than the combined total between 2000 and 2005 – and predictions of future value go up as high as $10 trillion (£10,000bn) by 2012.
"Individual investors, big companies and sovereign wealth funds are all part of the same story," said Gerard Lyons, the chief economist at Standard Chartered bank. "There's a shift in world economy where developing countries are becoming more important, and these investors are a reflection of that shift in financial power."
Mr Fahim's native Abu Dhabi has the biggest sovereign fund of all. There are two separate entities, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and the Mubadala Development Corporation. The former alone is estimated at $875bn, and between them the vehicles own stakes in ventures as diverse as Ferrari, the Suez Cement Company and New York's iconic Chrysler building.
In public, at least, Abu Dhabi's UK investments are limited. But the Prime Minister said in June that talks with the ADIA around the Government's plans to open up UK energy markets to foreign investors were progressing well. Other Middle Eastern countries are already well-represented here. Britain Up for Sale? >>> By Sarah Arnott | September 2, 2008
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