IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intfin/v42y2016icp60-76.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sovereign wealth funds targets selection: A comparison with pension funds

Author

Listed:
  • Boubakri, Narjess
  • Cosset, Jean-Claude
  • Grira, Jocelyn

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of sovereign wealth funds’ (SWFs) decisions to invest in publicly traded firms in comparison to pension funds. Using a sample of 344 firms targeted by SWFs over the 1991–2011 period and a control sample of 663 firms targeted by pension funds, we find that SWFs, in comparison to pension funds, are more likely to invest in firms operating in strategic industries as defined by Fama and French (1997) (financial sector, natural resources, mining, transportation, telecommunication and utilities) and in countries with sustainable economic growth and weak legal and institutional environment. Our findings are robust to disproportional size of some SWFs, their financing sources, their transparency level and acquisition activities during the recent financial crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Grira, Jocelyn, 2016. "Sovereign wealth funds targets selection: A comparison with pension funds," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 60-76.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfin:v:42:y:2016:i:c:p:60-76
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intfin.2016.01.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042443116000147
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intfin.2016.01.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karen K. Lewis, 1999. "Trying to Explain Home Bias in Equities and Consumption," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(2), pages 571-608, June.
    2. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "Judicial Checks and Balances," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 445-470, April.
    3. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1989. "Management entrenchment : The case of manager-specific investments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 123-139, November.
    4. Paul A. Gompers & Andrew Metrick, 2001. "Institutional Investors and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 229-259.
    5. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1990. "Do Managerial Objectives Drive Bad Acquisitions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 31-48, March.
    6. Edwin M. Truman, 2009. "A Blueprint for Sovereign Wealth Fund Best Practices," Revue d'Économie Financière, Programme National Persée, vol. 9(1), pages 429-451.
    7. Vicentiu Covrig & Sie Ting Lau & Lilian Ng, 2006. "Do domestic and foreign fund managers have similar preferences for stock characteristics? A cross-country analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(3), pages 407-429, May.
    8. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    9. Nuno Fernandes, 2014. "The Impact of Sovereign Wealth Funds on Corporate Value and Performance," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 26(1), pages 76-84, March.
    10. Dewenter, Kathryn L. & Han, Xi & Malatesta, Paul H., 2010. "Firm values and sovereign wealth fund investments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 256-278, November.
    11. Dahlquist, Magnus & Pinkowitz, Lee & Stulz, René M. & Williamson, Rohan, 2003. "Corporate Governance and the Home Bias," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 87-110, March.
    12. I. Serdar Dinc & Isil Erel, 2013. "Economic Nationalism in Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(6), pages 2471-2514, December.
    13. Knill, April & Lee, Bong-Soo & Mauck, Nathan, 2012. "Bilateral political relations and sovereign wealth fund investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 108-123.
    14. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    15. Karolyi, G. Andrew & Stulz, Rene M., 2003. "Are financial assets priced locally or globally?," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 16, pages 975-1020, Elsevier.
    16. Daniel Kaufmann & Aart Kraay & Massimo Mastruzzi, 2003. "Governance Matters III: Governance Indicators for 1996-2002," Macroeconomics 0308006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. William L. Megginson & Miao You & Liyan Han, 2013. "Determinants of Sovereign Wealth Fund Cross-Border Investments," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 48(4), pages 539-572, November.
    18. Charles Kahn & Andrew Winton, 1998. "Ownership Structure, Speculation, and Shareholder Intervention," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(1), pages 99-129, February.
    19. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2003. "Government matters III : governance indicators for 1996-2002," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3106, The World Bank.
    20. Shai Bernstein & Josh Lerner & Antoinette Schoar, 2013. "The Investment Strategies of Sovereign Wealth Funds," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 219-238, Spring.
    21. Knill, April M. & Lee, Bong Soo & Mauck, Nathan, 2012. "Sovereign wealth fund investment and the return-to-risk performance of target firms," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 315-340.
    22. Khorana, Ajay & Servaes, Henri & Tufano, Peter, 2005. "Explaining the size of the mutual fund industry around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 145-185, October.
    23. Sofia A Johan & April Knill & Nathan Mauck, 2013. "Determinants of sovereign wealth fund investment in private equity vs public equity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(2), pages 155-172, February.
    24. Tesar, Linda L & Werner, Ingrid M, 1995. "U.S. Equity Investment in Emerging Stock Markets," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 9(1), pages 109-129, January.
    25. Del Guercio, Diane, 1996. "The distorting effect of the prudent-man laws on institutional equity investments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 31-62, January.
    26. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1997. "Industry costs of equity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 153-193, February.
    27. Bertoni, Fabio & Lugo, Stefano, 2014. "The effect of sovereign wealth funds on the credit risk of their portfolio companies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 21-35.
    28. Hertzel, Michael G & Smith, Richard L, 1993. "Market Discounts and Shareholder Gains for Placing Equity Privately," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(2), pages 459-485, June.
    29. William L. Megginson & Veljko Fotak, 2015. "Rise Of The Fiduciary State: A Survey Of Sovereign Wealth Fund Research," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 733-778, September.
    30. Wilbur Chung & Juan Alcácer, 2002. "Knowledge Seeking and Location Choice of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(12), pages 1534-1554, December.
    31. Kang, Jun-Koo & Stulz, Rene M., 1997. "Why is there a home bias? An analysis of foreign portfolio equity ownership in Japan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 3-28, October.
    32. Falkenstein, Eric G, 1996. "Preferences for Stock Characteristics as Revealed by Mutual Fund Portfolio Holdings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 111-135, March.
    33. Ferreira, Miguel A. & Matos, Pedro, 2008. "The colors of investors' money: The role of institutional investors around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 499-533, June.
    34. Jain, Ravi, 2007. "Institutional and individual investor preferences for dividends and share repurchases," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 59(5), pages 406-429.
    35. Aggarwal, Reena & Klapper, Leora & Wysocki, Peter D., 2005. "Portfolio preferences of foreign institutional investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2919-2946, December.
    36. Bernardo Bortolotti & Veljko Fotak & William L. Megginson, 2015. "Editor's Choice The Sovereign Wealth Fund Discount: Evidence from Public Equity Investments," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(11), pages 2993-3035.
    37. Kotter, Jason & Lel, Ugur, 2011. "Friends or foes? Target selection decisions of sovereign wealth funds and their consequences," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 360-381, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huadong Chang & Guozhi An, 2019. "Leviathan is in Action? The Political Motivation behind the Outbound Investments of SWFs," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 9(5), pages 1-4.
    2. Grira, Jocelyn & Labidi, Chiraz & Rouatbi, Wael, 2022. "Does political risk matter for sovereign wealth funds? International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Amar, J. & Lecourt, C. & Carpantier, J.F., 2022. "GCC Sovereign Wealth Funds: Why do they take control?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Biancone, Paolo Pietro & Radwan, Maha, 2018. "Sharia-Compliant financing for public utility infrastructure," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 88-94.
    5. Mehmet AKYOL & Barýþ YILDIZ, 2017. "Impact of size of the National Asset Funds on Economic Development: Panel Data Analysis on Select Nations," Journal of Economics Library, KSP Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 194-205, June.
    6. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Grira, Jocelyn, 2017. "Sovereign wealth funds investment effects on target firms' competitors," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 96-112.
    7. Arouri, Mohamed & Boubaker, Sabri & Grais, Wafik & Grira, Jocelyn, 2018. "Rationality or politics? The color of black gold money," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 62-76.
    8. K.S.Reddy, 2019. "Pot the ball? Sovereign wealth funds’ outward FDI in times of global financial market turbulence: A yield institutions-based view," Central Bank Review, Research and Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, vol. 19(4), pages 129-139.
    9. Lanying Sun & Changhao Su & Xinghui Xian, 2020. "Assessing the Sustainability of China’s Basic Pension Funding for Urban and Rural Residents," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, April.
    10. Grira, Jocelyn, 2020. "Back to government ownership: The Sovereign Wealth Funds phenomenon," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    11. Li, Yong & Benson, Karen & Faff, Robert, 2016. "Political constraints and trading strategy in times of market stress: Evidence from the chinese national social security fund," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 217-221.
    12. Heeho Kim & Sanguk Kwon & Youn Seol, 2022. "Currency Bias of Sovereign Wealth Fund Investments," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 38, pages 415-443.
    13. Boubaker, Sabri & Boubakri, Narjess & Grira, Jocelyn & Guizani, Asma, 2018. "Sovereign wealth funds and equity pricing: Evidence from implied cost of equity of publicly traded targets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 202-224.
    14. Peng Liu & Nathan Mauck & S. McKay Price, 2020. "Are Government Owned Investment Funds Created Equal? Evidence from Sovereign Wealth Fund Real Estate Acquisitions," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 698-729, November.
    15. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra & Anna Grosman & William L. Megginson, 2023. "A review of the internationalization of state-owned firms and sovereign wealth funds: Governments’ nonbusiness objectives and discreet power," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 78-106, February.
    16. Gangi, Francesco & Meles, Antonio & Mustilli, Mario & Graziano, Domenico & Varrone, Nicola, 2019. "Do investment determinants and effects vary across sovereign wealth fund categories? A firm-level analysis," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 438-457.
    17. Megginson, William L. & Gao, Xuechen, 2020. "The state of research on sovereign wealth funds," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    18. Elvira Mami, 2023. "The role of sovereign wealth funds in natural resource-rich countries: A systematic meta-narrative review," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(3), pages 356-371, September.
    19. Mohamed Arouri & Sabri Boubaker & Wafik Grais, 2018. "On the Determinants of Souverign Wealth Funds’ Investments: Are Arab SWFS Different?," Working Papers 1174, Economic Research Forum, revised 29 Mar 2008.
    20. Gangi, Francesco & Mustilli, Mario & Varrone, Nicola & Graziano, Domenico, 2023. "Target firms’ characteristics and the effects of sovereign wealth funds’ investments: Does cultural context of SWFs matter?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    21. Martinez-Oviedo, Raul & Medda, Francesca, 2017. "Assessing the effects of adding timberland and farmland into resource-based Sovereign Wealth Fund portfolios," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 24-40.
    22. Alhashel, Bader S. & Albader, Sulaiman H., 2020. "How do sovereign wealth funds pay their portfolio companies’ executives? Evidence from Kuwait," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 303-322.
    23. Stefan Wurster & Steffen Johannes Schlosser, 2021. "Sovereign Wealth Funds as Sustainability Instruments? Disclosure of Sustainability Criteria in Worldwide Comparison," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-22, May.
    24. Dreassi, Alberto & Miani, Stefano & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2017. "Sovereign pension and social security reserve funds: A portfolio analysis," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 43-53.
    25. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra & Anna Grosman & Geoffrey T. Wood, 2023. "Cross-country variations in sovereign wealth funds’ transparency," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(3), pages 306-329, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arouri, Mohamed & Boubaker, Sabri & Grais, Wafik & Grira, Jocelyn, 2018. "Rationality or politics? The color of black gold money," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 62-76.
    2. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Grira, Jocelyn, 2017. "Sovereign wealth funds investment effects on target firms' competitors," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 96-112.
    3. Murtinu, Samuele & Scalera, Vittoria G., 2016. "Sovereign Wealth Funds' Internationalization Strategies: The Use of Investment Vehicles," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 249-264.
    4. Grira, Jocelyn & Labidi, Chiraz & Rouatbi, Wael, 2022. "Does political risk matter for sovereign wealth funds? International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Gangi, Francesco & Meles, Antonio & Mustilli, Mario & Graziano, Domenico & Varrone, Nicola, 2019. "Do investment determinants and effects vary across sovereign wealth fund categories? A firm-level analysis," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 438-457.
    6. Boubaker, Sabri & Boubakri, Narjess & Grira, Jocelyn & Guizani, Asma, 2018. "Sovereign wealth funds and equity pricing: Evidence from implied cost of equity of publicly traded targets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 202-224.
    7. Bahoo, Salman & Alon, Ilan & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2020. "Sovereign wealth funds: Past, present and future," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Gangi, Francesco & Mustilli, Mario & Varrone, Nicola & Graziano, Domenico, 2023. "Target firms’ characteristics and the effects of sovereign wealth funds’ investments: Does cultural context of SWFs matter?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    9. Ferreira, Miguel A. & Matos, Pedro, 2008. "The colors of investors' money: The role of institutional investors around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 499-533, June.
    10. Paul Calluzzo & G Nathan Dong & David Godsell, 2017. "Sovereign wealth fund investments and the US political process," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(2), pages 222-243, February.
    11. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2018. "Sovereign wealth fund governance and national culture," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 78-92.
    12. Dreassi, Alberto & Miani, Stefano & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2017. "Sovereign pension and social security reserve funds: A portfolio analysis," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 43-53.
    13. Bernardo Bortolotti & Veljko Fotak & Giacomo Loss, 2017. "Taming Leviathan: Mitigating Political Interference in Sovereign Wealth Funds’ Public Equity Investments," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 1764, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    14. Francesco Baldi & Davide Ciferri, 2016. "State-owned private equity funds investing in "national champions": The case of Italy," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(3), pages 177-218.
    15. Alhashel, Bader S. & Albader, Sulaiman H., 2020. "How do sovereign wealth funds pay their portfolio companies’ executives? Evidence from Kuwait," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 303-322.
    16. Piccioni, Joao Luiz & Sheng, Hsia Hua & Lora, Mayra Ivanoff, 2012. "Mutual fund managers stock preferences in Latin America," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 38-47.
    17. Ciarlone, Alessio & Miceli, Valeria, 2016. "Escaping financial crises? Macro evidence from sovereign wealth funds' investment behaviour," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 169-196.
    18. Abdioglu, Nida & Khurshed, Arif & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos, 2013. "Foreign institutional investment: Is governance quality at home important?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 916-940.
    19. Guha Deb, Soumya, 2018. "Institutional Investors and firm characteristics: New evidence from India," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 30-42.
    20. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra & Anna Grosman & Geoffrey T. Wood, 2023. "Cross-country variations in sovereign wealth funds’ transparency," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(3), pages 306-329, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intfin:v:42:y:2016:i:c:p:60-76. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/intfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.