金
融危机给绝大多数投资者都上了一堂风险管理课程。亚洲的主权财富基金似乎格外关注这些失败投资所带来的教训。在因投资华尔街录得巨亏而起的最初尴尬过后，中国和新加坡的主权财富投资者调整了投资策略，进行了多元化投资，并关注于自己更为熟悉的市场。
EyePress News/Newscom
中投公司董事长楼继伟
投资公司橡树资本(Oaktree Capital)的董事长马浩华(Howard Marks)近日在香港接受采访时说，对许多主权财富基金来说，这是他们首次遇到难关。
马浩华说，我想他们将严格自己的操作，并开始认识到投资不仅等同于赚钱的机会，它也意味着赔钱或深陷毫无吸引力的投资工具的可能。
最早让中投公司(China Investment Corp.)尝到苦果是它在2007年5月斥资30亿美元收购百仕通集团(Blackstone Group)部分股权的交易，当时这家私募股权公司尚未进行首次公开募股(IPO)。当该交易宣布之时中投公司甚至连官方名称都没有，也没有对交易进行评估的内部构架。但是中投公司认为这是一个难得机会，在中国，赶在全球私募股权公司和对冲基金进行IPO之前投资一直是个能赚钱的投资策略。因此当时中投高管的想法就是为什么自己不能如法炮制？
很快，他们就认识到了IPO前融资交易并不是稳赚不亏的买卖：包括百仕通在内的美国金融类股股价大幅跳水。不过，和中投公司有密切工作关系的人士指出，当时国内针对这笔交易的批评对于中投公司来说并非坏事，或许能够帮助该公司取得长期的成功。
在2008年市场呈螺旋式下降的日子里，中投公司管理层并没有在新交易面前裹足不前，而是用大部分时间关注新员工招聘及听取投资界巨子的建议。中投公司还建立了一种多资产类别的投资策略，以更好地利用手中现金。虽然中投公司的体系不够完备，但它确实已有所进步。
与此同时，中投公司还引入了新的人才，包括不久前将美国对冲基金Tudor Investment Corp.前高管Bill Lu招至麾下管理对冲基金业务。当2007年手握中国外汇储备中2,000亿美元的中投公司刚刚成立之时，市场行情正是火爆，优秀的管理人士无暇顾及这里。
眼下，越来越多的中国金融家愿意效力于中投公司，不仅因为这里给予了他们管理巨额资产的机会，同时也因为许多美国对冲基金品牌已黯然失色，而且无力再支付给员工丰厚薪资。
装备了更强大投资团队和更好管理构架的中头公司或许是今年投资领域中最活跃的投资者。该公司迅速地投出了现金，在周期性行业中、特别是大宗商品领域投资了至少400亿美元。
中投公司还投资中国本土企业，并在许多全球对冲基金及私募股权公司面临现金荒、愿意给新投资者开出有利条件时出手相助。
橡树资本的马浩华就是这样的一个受益者。知情人士称，中投公司承诺向他的公司投资10亿美元。很多人质疑中投公司是否为了实现最佳投资而做了足够的尽职调查，但多数观察人士同意，其投资时机和侧重点都是很恰当的。
新加坡的国有投资机构淡巴锡控股(Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd.)和新加坡政府投资公司(Government of Singapore Investment Corp.)也都在汲取自己的经验。为加深对全球市场的了解，淡马锡引进了更多非新加坡籍的专业人士，此外它把注意力重新放在亚洲范围内它最了解的市场，并开始了向多策略投资方针的转变。作为新加坡最大投资公司的新加坡政府投资公司也重组了领导层，不过在引进外部人士方面要谨慎得多。
淡马锡投资巴克莱(Barclays PLC)和美林(Merrill Lynch)失败后，采取了一个或许最为大胆的举措，不过最后没有成功。它聘请必和必拓(BHP Billiton)前首席执行长顾之博(Charles "Chip" Goodyear)接任新加坡总理夫人何晶(Ho Ching)担任淡马锡董事长，从而为这家管理层和董事会都由新加坡人主导的机构注入新鲜血液。
顾之博是美国人，在大宗商品领域的经验胜过金融行业，最后因为在战略上的分歧，他在交接期间与淡马锡分道扬镳。这说明淡马锡的改革将不得不更为渐进。
不过淡马锡也有一些明智之举。它将注意力重新放到亚洲市场，通过投资于其投资组合公司的认股权发行获得了可观的利润，并在全球市场接近探底、很多西方战略合作伙伴为筹集资金而出售中国国有银行股权时，加大了对中国国有银行的投资。
淡马锡将自己视为一家国有投资公司，而不是主权财富基金，因此它也谋求投资范围多元化。过去它坚持股权投资和参与私募股权基金，现在它更加侧重于债务投资和参与债券基金。
它也在制定一项内部称为"Sea Town"的计划，目的是建立一只与公众投资者联合投资的基金。所有这些转变都将使淡马锡与市场起伏的关联性降低，使之成为一家投资更加分散的非常规资产管理机构。
还有一个问题需要得到回答：各主权财富基金能否把这些经验给制度化？在全球显现复苏迹象的背景下，回到老路上去是很容易的。
主权财富基金将需要保持低姿态，并且避免从事不能胜任的业务，也就是说，只能选择自己除了巨大资产负债表以外还有其他优势的那些业务。
这些优势包括，它们比多数投资者处于更有利的地位，能够看到亚洲的韧性增长将在哪些地方创造可持续的利润。它们也需要避开个人回报甚于财务回报的各种诱人资产。
正如橡树资本的马浩华所说：主权财富基金在其投资方针上正变得越来越聪明，至少在人们忘记这一轮的教训以前是这样。
Rick Carew
The financial crisis taught most of the investing world a lesson about managing risk. Asia's sovereign-wealth funds appear to be taking some lessons from bad investments to heart.
After the initial embarrassment of heavy losses on investments in Wall Street, state-owned investors in China and Singapore are reshaping their strategies by diversifying their investment scope and focusing on markets where they have better knowledge.
They are also attracting talent more willing to consider jobs at these funds, although all efforts in this direction haven't been successes. These two countries' funds are Asia's largest, and Singapore's funds are viewed as models by other countries, making them essential to understanding how other Asian sovereign funds from South Korea and Malaysia will reshape themselves.
'For many sovereign-wealth funds, this is their first brush with difficulty,' Howard Marks, chairman of alternative-investment firm Oaktree Capital, said in a recent interview in Hong Kong.
'I imagine they will tighten up their practices and will start to look at investments as something other than just the chance to make money,' Mr. Marks said. 'It's also a chance to lose money or get stuck in an unattractive vehicle.'
China Investment Corp. learned the earliest lesson by investing $3 billion in Blackstone Group LP in May 2007 ahead of the private-equity firm's initial public offering. CIC didn't even have an official name when the deal was announced and had no internal structure in place to evaluate the deal. But CIC thought it saw a rare opportunity. In China, pre-IPO investing had been a profitable strategy for global private-equity funds and hedge funds. So, CIC executives thought, why can't we do the same thing?
They soon learned that pre-IPO deals aren't always winners: U.S. financial stocks, including Blackstone, took a dramatic turn downward. Still, people who work closely with the Chinese sovereign fund say criticism of that investment within China could have been a blessing in disguise for CIC's longer-term success.
Rather than cutting new deals, CIC's management spent most of 2008 focused on recruiting staff and picking up advice from investment-industry luminaries courting the fund as markets spiraled downward. CIC also built out a multiple-asset-class strategy to deploy its cash. CIC may not have a perfect system, but it is improved.
Meanwhile, CIC has brought in new talent, including Bill Lu, a former executive at U.S. hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp. recently recruited to help run CIC's hedge-fund program. Good talent wasn't available in the heady markets of 2007 when CIC was initially set up to manage a $200 billion chunk of China's foreign-exchange reserves.
Now, more Chinese financiers are willing to take jobs with CIC because it gives them an opportunity to manage a vast portfolio, and because many U.S. hedge funds have lost both the luster of their brands and their ability to pay large salaries to staff.
A stronger investing team and better structure has positioned CIC to be perhaps the most aggressive investor in the world this year. CIC has deployed cash at a rapid clip, putting at least $40 billion this year into deals linked to cyclical businesses, particularly commodities.
It is also putting money into Chinese companies and backing global hedge funds and private-equity firms at a time when many of those firms are cash-starved and willing to offer attractive terms to new investors.
Oaktree's Mr. Marks is one such beneficiary. His firm has received a roughly $1 billion commitment from CIC to manage, according to people familiar with the situation. Many question whether CIC is doing enough due diligence to wisely invest all that money, but most observers agree its timing and investment focus is smart.
Singapore's state-owned investors, Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. and Government of Singapore Investment Corp., are taking in lessons of their own. Temasek has brought in more non-Singaporean professionals to improve its global savvy, refocused on markets it knows best in Asia, and begun a shift to a multiple-strategy-investing approach. GIC, the city-state's biggest fund, also shook up its leadership, although it has been far less bold in bringing in outsiders.
Temasek made perhaps the boldest move in the aftermath of its sour bets on Barclays PLC and Merrill Lynch, though one that ultimately didn't work out. It hired former BHP Billiton Chief Executive Charles 'Chip' Goodyear to succeed Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore's prime minister, as Temasek's top boss and provide fresh blood to an organization whose management and board are dominated by Singaporeans.
Mr. Goodyear, an American with more experience in commodities than in the finance industry, ended up parting ways with Temasek during his transition over disagreements on strategy, suggesting that change at the fund will have to come more incrementally.
Still, Temasek has made some smart moves. It has refocused on Asian markets, making profitable investments in many of its portfolio companies' rights issues and stepping up its bets on China's state banks when many Western strategic partners sold out near the bottom of global markets to raise cash.
Temasek, which considers itself a state-owned investment firm rather than a sovereign-wealth fund, has also looked at diversifying its investment scope. It has traditionally stuck to equity investments and private-equity-fund commitments. Now it is looking more at debt investments and debt-fund commitments.
It is also working on a plan, dubbed 'Sea Town' internally, to create a co-investment vehicle with public investors. Those shifts will all make Temasek's portfolio less closely linked to the gyrations of markets and the firm a more diversified alternative asset manager.
One question remains: Can sovereign funds institutionalize these lessons? Hints of a global recovery make it tempting to revert to the old status quo.
Sovereign funds will need to keep their humility and stay within their circle of competence -- deals where they have an advantage other than their big balance sheets.
That includes a better vantage point than most investors to see where Asia's resilient growth will create winners with sustainable profits. They also need to steer clear of trophy assets that offer more personal rewards than financial.
As Oaktree's Mr. Marks puts it: Sovereign-wealth funds are becoming wiser about their approach to investing, 'at least until people forget the lessons of the cycle.'
Rick Carew
After the initial embarrassment of heavy losses on investments in Wall Street, state-owned investors in China and Singapore are reshaping their strategies by diversifying their investment scope and focusing on markets where they have better knowledge.
They are also attracting talent more willing to consider jobs at these funds, although all efforts in this direction haven't been successes. These two countries' funds are Asia's largest, and Singapore's funds are viewed as models by other countries, making them essential to understanding how other Asian sovereign funds from South Korea and Malaysia will reshape themselves.
'For many sovereign-wealth funds, this is their first brush with difficulty,' Howard Marks, chairman of alternative-investment firm Oaktree Capital, said in a recent interview in Hong Kong.
'I imagine they will tighten up their practices and will start to look at investments as something other than just the chance to make money,' Mr. Marks said. 'It's also a chance to lose money or get stuck in an unattractive vehicle.'
China Investment Corp. learned the earliest lesson by investing $3 billion in Blackstone Group LP in May 2007 ahead of the private-equity firm's initial public offering. CIC didn't even have an official name when the deal was announced and had no internal structure in place to evaluate the deal. But CIC thought it saw a rare opportunity. In China, pre-IPO investing had been a profitable strategy for global private-equity funds and hedge funds. So, CIC executives thought, why can't we do the same thing?
They soon learned that pre-IPO deals aren't always winners: U.S. financial stocks, including Blackstone, took a dramatic turn downward. Still, people who work closely with the Chinese sovereign fund say criticism of that investment within China could have been a blessing in disguise for CIC's longer-term success.
Rather than cutting new deals, CIC's management spent most of 2008 focused on recruiting staff and picking up advice from investment-industry luminaries courting the fund as markets spiraled downward. CIC also built out a multiple-asset-class strategy to deploy its cash. CIC may not have a perfect system, but it is improved.
Meanwhile, CIC has brought in new talent, including Bill Lu, a former executive at U.S. hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp. recently recruited to help run CIC's hedge-fund program. Good talent wasn't available in the heady markets of 2007 when CIC was initially set up to manage a $200 billion chunk of China's foreign-exchange reserves.
Now, more Chinese financiers are willing to take jobs with CIC because it gives them an opportunity to manage a vast portfolio, and because many U.S. hedge funds have lost both the luster of their brands and their ability to pay large salaries to staff.
A stronger investing team and better structure has positioned CIC to be perhaps the most aggressive investor in the world this year. CIC has deployed cash at a rapid clip, putting at least $40 billion this year into deals linked to cyclical businesses, particularly commodities.
It is also putting money into Chinese companies and backing global hedge funds and private-equity firms at a time when many of those firms are cash-starved and willing to offer attractive terms to new investors.
Oaktree's Mr. Marks is one such beneficiary. His firm has received a roughly $1 billion commitment from CIC to manage, according to people familiar with the situation. Many question whether CIC is doing enough due diligence to wisely invest all that money, but most observers agree its timing and investment focus is smart.
Singapore's state-owned investors, Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. and Government of Singapore Investment Corp., are taking in lessons of their own. Temasek has brought in more non-Singaporean professionals to improve its global savvy, refocused on markets it knows best in Asia, and begun a shift to a multiple-strategy-investing approach. GIC, the city-state's biggest fund, also shook up its leadership, although it has been far less bold in bringing in outsiders.
Temasek made perhaps the boldest move in the aftermath of its sour bets on Barclays PLC and Merrill Lynch, though one that ultimately didn't work out. It hired former BHP Billiton Chief Executive Charles 'Chip' Goodyear to succeed Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore's prime minister, as Temasek's top boss and provide fresh blood to an organization whose management and board are dominated by Singaporeans.
Mr. Goodyear, an American with more experience in commodities than in the finance industry, ended up parting ways with Temasek during his transition over disagreements on strategy, suggesting that change at the fund will have to come more incrementally.
Still, Temasek has made some smart moves. It has refocused on Asian markets, making profitable investments in many of its portfolio companies' rights issues and stepping up its bets on China's state banks when many Western strategic partners sold out near the bottom of global markets to raise cash.
Temasek, which considers itself a state-owned investment firm rather than a sovereign-wealth fund, has also looked at diversifying its investment scope. It has traditionally stuck to equity investments and private-equity-fund commitments. Now it is looking more at debt investments and debt-fund commitments.
It is also working on a plan, dubbed 'Sea Town' internally, to create a co-investment vehicle with public investors. Those shifts will all make Temasek's portfolio less closely linked to the gyrations of markets and the firm a more diversified alternative asset manager.
One question remains: Can sovereign funds institutionalize these lessons? Hints of a global recovery make it tempting to revert to the old status quo.
Sovereign funds will need to keep their humility and stay within their circle of competence -- deals where they have an advantage other than their big balance sheets.
That includes a better vantage point than most investors to see where Asia's resilient growth will create winners with sustainable profits. They also need to steer clear of trophy assets that offer more personal rewards than financial.
As Oaktree's Mr. Marks puts it: Sovereign-wealth funds are becoming wiser about their approach to investing, 'at least until people forget the lessons of the cycle.'
Rick Carew
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