Azeri state oil fund to cut euro holdings for aussie, stocks

Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund will cut the share of euros in its holdings in favor of the Australian dollar, Russian ruble and Turkish lira, while planning to increase investments in real estate to diversify its assets.

The fund will reduce the share of euros to 35 percent of its investment portfolio from 40 percent, Jamala Aliyeva, a spokeswoman for Sofaz, as it’s called, told Bloomberg News. The combined share of Australian dollar, Russian ruble and Turkish lira holdings will rise to 10 percent from 5 percent, she said.

Sofaz allocates 50 percent of its foreign-exchange holdings to the U.S. dollar and 5 percent to the British pound.

Created in 1999 to manage the Caspian Sea nation’s income from the sale of oil and natural gas, Sofaz had $35.8 billion of assets as of Oct. 1. The fund has about $1 billion earmarked for commercial real estate in Australia and Asian countries including South Korea, Japan, Singapore and China, Sofaz Deputy Executive Director Israfil Mammadov said in October.

Last December, Sofaz bought the Gallery Actor business and shopping center in central Moscow for $133 million after purchasing an office complex in London’s West End for $285 million and a retail property in Paris for $184 million.

The share of stocks in the fund’s investment portfolio will grow to 10 percent from 5 percent, while the portion of bonds will be cut to 80 percent from 85 percent, Aliyeva said.

ANN.Az