Oman signs USD bns in joint funds with China

Oman wires itself into Chinese capital: The Oman Investment Authority (OIA) signed a package of agreements worth USD bns during Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s visit to China on Monday. All the agreements carrying a value are jointly managed funds, and two of them will invest in Chinese technology rather than in Oman, according to Oman Observer.

OIA set up a OMR 307.6 mn (USD 800 mn) joining investment fund with China’s Silk Road Fund, with most of the capital earmarked for Oman, and a separate OMR 115.4 mn (USD 300 mn) fund with China Merchants Bank on equal contributions, following a 2019 vehicle the two built to buy Chinese tech. Other agreements include a USD 200 mn fund with Templewater, whose innovation fund is putting USD 60 mn into Chinese technology, and a USD 250 mn fund with EWP Partners that brings the overall partnership to USD 275 mn.

The two countries’ central banks also signed the settlement line to go with all of these agreements. The Central Bank of Oman and the People’s Bank of China agreed a currency swap during the visit, and separate memoranda cover central bank digital currencies and regulatory coordination between the two securities and futures markets, Gulf News reported. Neither side disclosed the swap’s size or tenor.

OIA ran the same structure in Central Asia last week, launching a USD 500 mn fund for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, the first multilateral vehicle Oman has led there, pooling other sovereign funds’ capital under an Omani manager.