You could hear about funds owned by governments and investing money in foreign markets, including the largest stock exchanges. Maybe you heard about the Norwegian fund, which manages about US $1.3 trillion? Or Chinese funds that manage about US $2.2 trillion? Maybe you even know that these funds are the largest shareholders of BP and Credit Suisse? But do you know, what their motivations are? How do they invest? What concerns about their activity are raised?

Sovereign wealth funds (SWF) are important, yet largely unknown players on the global financial markets. They are government-backed funds that allocate a dominant part of their portfolio to foreign markets. They manage assets of more than US $8 trillion, twice as much as hedge funds, and trice as much as private equity funds.

This course aims to give you a basic understanding of these funds – their motivations, investments and related controversies. After this course you will:

• Understand background, origin and rationale of creating sovereign wealth funds as well as concerns about their activity

• Be able to name the biggest players and countries holding the biggest sovereign wealth

• Know the current value of the total assets managed by SWF and their current number

• Be able to indicate assets class, regions and sector most often targeted by SWF

• Get familiar with the current market trends and challenges for sovereign wealth funds

During the course, you will have a chance to reinforce your knowledge about these funds through the quiz questions.

Build your knowledge about the investors shaping modern financial markets.

Let’s get started!