在巴林Mumtalakat控股公司的总部，大多数办公室和会议室都用平板玻璃围起来。游客被护送到马哈茂德古合基四楼办公室外的会议室，可以观察主权财富基金首席执行官的工作，欣赏麦纳麦天际线和海湾水域的景色。对于古合基来说，办公室的开放性不仅仅是一个美学问题。这是透明的象征——他认为这一品质对管理沙特主权财富基金至关重要。
“关于透明度的事情是人们害怕它，”在巴林政府已经花了两十年多年来，“Al Kooheji讲述了”亚博赞助欧冠. “但一旦你习惯了，你就不想让它消失。”
Tasked with managing the kingdom’s non–oil and gas investments, Mumtalakat — Arabic for “assets” — seeks to turn around state-owned enterprises by promoting private sector–style transparency and sound corporate governance. The $11.2 billion fund holds stakes in 38 enterprises, including many of the country’s largest employers, with a total value of about $8 billion. It has undertaken major restructurings at several of these companies, including two of the most critical: Aluminum Bahrain and Gulf Air. “Our mission is very simple: just run our portfolio commercially,” Al Kooheji says in a calm, fatherly tone befitting the protector of the nation’s most strategic assets.
Mumtalakat也开始展示其作为投资组合投资者的实力，在过去两年中收购了三家外国公司的大量少数股权，以期实现持股多元化，并为巴林经济带来连锁反应。这三宗交易是与经验丰富的私人股本投资者合作完成的，总价值约10亿美元；Mumtalakat尚未披露其在这些交易中的股份。不过，古合基说，他希望今后一年能参与价值约10亿美元的交易。该基金计划扩大其国际投资组合，作为未来15年发展经济的广泛政府计划的一部分。”在某种程度上，我们需要在我们所做的事情上，相对于其他规模庞大的主权财富基金产生更大的影响，”该基金首席投资官祖尔夫•阿里（zulfeali）表示。
As one of the newest and smallest of the海湾的许多主权财富基金, Mumtalakat has little of the swagger and market clout of such established giants as theAbu Dhabi Investment Authority(estimated size: $620 billion) or the Qatar Investment Authority ($334 billion). Global asset managers aren’t scrambling for its mandates, and bankers don’t stream to its waterfront headquarters looking to arrange deals for New York office towers, U.K. football teams or other trophy properties. Bahrain was the first country in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to strike oil but it doesn’t possess the massive reserves of its neighbors. Similarly, the fund does not receive inflows from surplus government revenue — not that there is any.
“Unlike our neighbors, we never depended on someone to give us cash to deploy,” Al Kooheji says. “We know that we have to earn our living.” The fund posted net income of 91.6 billion dinars ($245 million) in 2014, the most recent period for which results are available, on revenue of BD1.2 billion.
At home, though, Mumtalakat is a giant in this island nation of 1.35 million people with a gross domestic product of barely $24 billion, according to World Bank data.
该基金占据经济的指挥高度。成立于2006年，监督政府的主要商业利益，Mumtalakat持有该等实体的控制股票，作为Batelco集团，全国电话公司，巴林电信公司（37％）;该国巴林国家银行最大的贷方（45％）;巴林铝，俗称阿巴（69％）;和海湾空气（100％）。
Mumtalakat的使命仅在多年来的重要性。The Arab Spring shook Bahrain to its core in 2011。数万人主要来自该国的什叶派团大多数，在一个民主运动中沿着民主运动的街道抵御Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa国王，要求宪政和政治改革以及对涉嫌人权行为的调查。经过一个月的示威之后，政府呼吁沙特阿拉伯和阿拉伯联合酋长国的军事支持，并释放了野蛮的镇压，袭击了麦纳麦的珍珠环形交叉路口的抗议者阵营。哈马德国王设立的独立探究表示，安全部队在没有理由的情况下造成至少18人;成千上万的人受伤和被判入狱。虽然政府随后对重大抗议活动持续了盖子，但政权与什叶派大多数之间的紧张局势仍然很高。
Socioeconomic factors played a major role in the unrest of 2011 and are a major source of discontent, says Jasim Husain, a Bahraini economist and former member of Parliament for Al Wefaq National Islamic Society, the largest Shia political party. “The big issue for many people is jobs, absence of discrimination and equal opportunity,” says Husain, who left public office in 2012, when his party boycotted Parliament in response to the crackdown. “These are very important things for the average Shia.”
The government is eager to maintain social harmony but is strapped for cash at a time of sub-$30-a-barrel oil prices. Last year Sunni and Shia parliamentarians crossed the aisle to stall controversial cuts to meat subsidies; the cuts eventually went through in October, doubling the prices of chicken and beef. The government slashed fuel subsidies in January, boosting gasoline prices by more than half. Bahraini citizens, who make up only about half of the population — the rest is immigrant labor, mainly from Asian countries — still receive some government assistance through cash payouts.
在这种紧张的预算气氛中，政府就像邻近的沙特人一样，现在必须转向私营部门，以长期产生可持续增长。Mumtalakat通过合作伙伴关系吸引私人投资者对巴林的能力，因此对君主制的稳定感到令人关心。“人们渴望表达自己并提高他们的生活水平，”经济发展局首席执行官Khalid Al Rumaihi表示，该机构监督并与主权基金合作。“我认为你可以通过传统的就业机会做到这一点，但你必须让人们有一个梦想并找到一种在那种梦想中执行的方式。”
巴林缺乏其许多GCC合作伙伴的令人兴奋的石油资源，几十年来依靠产业政策来发展经济。它在1968年建立了Alba，以利用该地区的丰富和廉价的石油供应，因为铝制生产是一种高度能量密集的过程。在从U.K的独立宣布。1971年，巴林开始建立金融服务部门;在将武器开启到逃离黎巴嫩的内战之后，它在20世纪80年代超过了贝鲁特作为该地区的货币枢纽。多年来，巴林吸引了众多跨国公司，该公司在该地区最大的经济体的基础设施，允许的金融法规，相对较前的文化和靠近沙特阿拉伯的基础设施，允许的财务条例，相对较前的文化和靠近的跨国公司。亚慱体育app怎么下载
活动have conspired to blunt Bahrain’s competitive edge, though. The brash emirate of Dubai moved aggressively in the 2000s to develop an international financial sector and quickly overtook Bahrain as the region’s financial center. Abu Dhabi and Qatar followed Dubai’s lead and spent heavily to develop their economies. Other Gulf countries, including Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have built their own aluminum smelters, some of them larger than Alba.
为了使巴林经济更上一层楼，巴林于2000年成立了经济发展委员会，负责监督规划和促进改革，6年后成立了Mumtalakat，作为国有企业的控股公司。”问题是，我们如何将我们的思维从选美比赛的模式转移到一些基于整合和互补的模式上，”EDB首席经济学家Jarmo Kotilaine说我们需要确保了解区域价值链，抓住最能发挥巴林优势的要素。”
The agency has identified five priority sectors for development: manufacturing, tourism, information technology, logistics and financial services. Mumtalakat controls many of the largest players in those sectors, having inherited its corporate holdings from the Ministry of Finance’s Government Shareholdings Directorate. “In the government we decided these companies needed to be run commercially,” says Al Kooheji, who formerly headed the directorate. “So we decided to spin Mumtalakat out.”
The sovereign fund has more in common with development funds such as新加坡淡马锡控股和阿布扎比的Mubadala发展有福与巨人的主权投资组合投资者与阿布扎比投资权威。
“Like a young Temasek in its first decade of existence, Mumtalakat’s mandate is to play the role of a state entrepreneur, to make investments in related companies and infrastructure to help build the domestic economy — a role that Bahrain’s nascent private sector is unable to undertake,” says Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi, a research fellow at Tufts University and author of an academic case study of the fund. Both entities tap global bond markets for financing and were created to turn around state-run businesses and attract investment to diversify their domestic economies, he adds.
主权基金在2008年在2008年接受了更大的作用，当时政府通过了经济愿景2030，一个要求国家在经济中减少其在经济作用的计划，并允许私营部门接管。该计划设想Mumtalakat代表国家制定战略投资，同时培养政府拥有的企业，直到他们可以通过初始公开募股或私募股权销售私有化。“在油价下降之前，这个想法很好，但现在有必要的紧迫感，因为政府想要管理其费用和缩小，”EDB的Al Rumaihi说。“我们希望有充满活力的私营部门提供的就业。”
尽管石油和天然气工业只占国家GDP的20%，但传统上它创造了大约70%的政府收入。原油价格暴跌迫使政府缩减昂贵的社会项目和补贴。国际货币基金组织估计，巴林的盈亏平衡油价（平衡预算所需的原油价格）约为每桶125美元。由于该国自2009年以来一直存在巨额赤字——惠誉评级预计，今年的赤字将达到GDP的10.7%——据估计，截至2015年底，其公共债务将占GDP的54%。
Can the Bahrain fund emulate the success of Temasek? Chaturvedi has his doubts. “Unfortunately for Mumtalakat, the government of Bahrain is far from being like its Singaporean counterpart,” he says. “The fund’s transparency is of little good when its parent, the sovereign, is shrouded in a veil of corruption.” On Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, Singapore ranked seventh while Bahrain came in at No. 55, notably lagging its regional rival the UAE, in 25th place. “Temasek benefits from its sovereign’s discipline, whereas Mumtalakat is inhibited by its sovereign’s indiscipline,” Chaturvedi adds.
Mumtalakat在第一个十年中取得了一些重要的成就。The fund had a steep learning curve, says Talal Al-Zain, a former executive at Bahrain-based private equity firm Investcorp who was appointed as Mumtalakat’s first CEO in 2008. At the time, Alba, Batelco and National Bank of Bahrain were the only companies contributing to Mumtalakat’s cash flow, and the fund was run by a team of about 20 employees, most of them from the Finance Ministry.
“尽管Mumtalakat由政府所拥有，但目标是与私营部门等公司治理制定一个机构，”Al-Zain告诉IIin a telephone interview. To that end, the CEO began filling senior positions with global talent sourced through an executive search firm.
从一开始，扎因就把透明度作为优先事项。除了在Mumtalakat的网站上公布经审计的年度财务报表外，他还敦促基金投资组合中大多数不透明的公司也这样做。他还着手重组Mumtalakat的两大控股公司。扎因（Al-Zain）出任海湾航空（gulfair）董事长，时任副首席执行官的古合吉（Al-Kooheji）也在铝业公司Alba担任同样的职务。
捉襟见肘,Al-Zain识别部分sale of Alba as a way to boost liquidity at the sovereign fund. In 2008, Al Kooheji brought in consultants from McKinsey & Co. and forensic accountants to put Alba’s operations under a microscope. The accountants uncovered signs of government mismanagement and corruption. Alba filed a lawsuit against Alcoa alleging that the Pittsburgh-based company had funneled tens of millions in bribes to Alba executives in exchange for overpriced contracts to supply alumina, the raw material used to make aluminum. Alba claimed the contracts had resulted in losses of $400 million since 1989.
2012年，美铝同意支付8500万美元来解决西装，并将长期的氧化铝合约击中更加优惠。同年的Bruce Hall从2001年到2005年的Alba首席执行官，恳求在U.K.上有罪，以损坏阴谋。他被判处16个月的监狱，并命令贿赂510万美元。相比之下，巴林皇家家庭和阿尔巴董事长的酋长伊萨·本·阿里·哈利法被评为共谋者，但没有面临费用。
2009年，Al-Kooheji率先提出了一项重组计划，包括裁员和从使用销售代理转向直接营销；这些举措降低了16%的运营成本，使公司在2010年节省了3800万孟加拉塔卡。“我们意识到竞争即将来临，”他解释道。他还着手使公司的供应商基础多样化，以确保公司所有原材料的价格都具有竞争力。”过去，我们几乎所有业务都依赖单一来源，这可能是因为腐败问题，”蒂姆·默里（Tim Murray）说，他是一位帮助推动公司重组的美国人，担任首席财务官，自2012年起担任首席执行官。“现在，对于我们的大型原材料，我们通常有三到四家供应商。”除了美国铝业，该公司从力拓铝业（riotintoalcan）和嘉能可（Glencore）等公司购买氧化铝。中国公司提供了大部分其他的原料，如绿色焦炭、液态沥青和氟化物。
Al Kooheji reviewed Alba’s sales contracts to eliminate undercharging. For example, Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Co., which is 37 percent owned by Mumtalakat, had been receiving discounts on the aluminum slabs it compresses into sheets and foils. “All that disappeared,” Al Kooheji says. “They work with each other commercially now, and I think that’s the right way through.”
In November 2010, Mumtalakat floated 10 percent of Alba on the Bahrain Bourse and the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market. Priced at the bottom of the indicated range, at $11.97 per global depositary receipt, the offering raised $338 million. The shares fell sharply in the first year of trading and have drifted lower since, to $4.80 in late January. But Alba’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization climbed to BD177.9 million in 2014 from BD15.7 million in 2009.
“做IPO需要大量的纪律，”默里·默里表示，作为公司的大脑，作为公司的变化。“我们在伦敦交流中列出，因此公司治理要求相对较高。”
At Gulf Air, Mumtalakat found itself on the hook for financing the company’s perennial losses after becoming the carrier’s sole shareholder in 2007. The sovereign fund provided equity injections and loans of BD169 million in 2008 and BD197 million in 2009 to offset losses, expand the fleet and refinance existing aircraft. “This speaks to the Bahraini government’s inability to uphold the separation of the regulatory and policymaking functions of the government from its role as a shareholder in commercial entities,” says Tufts’s Chaturvedi.
除了最大的雇主之一in Bahrain, Gulf Air has strategic importance because of its role in facilitating tourism and business travel. This is a region, after all, where Dubai and Abu Dhabi have used their airlines — Emirates and Etihad Airways, respectively — as pivotal growth drivers. “For companies to set up here, they need to have the connectivity, and I refuse to accept the argument that other airlines would service Bahrain,” says former CEO Al-Zain. “You need a local carrier to service the economy and provide connectivity.”
在2012年左侧孟特拉特卡特之后，在中东地区和北非的Pinebridge Investments的业务首席执行官，Al Kooheji将作为基金的首席执行官接替，加入了海湾航空委员会。他克服了政治逆风和担保政府支持，推动闭合无利可图的议程，现有的舰队和削减员工萎缩。“我们去了政府并看了，这些航线正在失去，因为你需要他们作为政府，你需要帮助我们重组公司，”“Al Kooheji说。2014年，该公司在十年内宣布其最佳成果，报告营业损失为2d62.7百万，而亏损213.8百万年以上。
除了管理Mumtalakat的工业持有人外，Al Kooheji和他的团队正在寻找新的交易，具有双管齐下的重点：吸引对巴林的投资，以利用基金现有的控股和寻找可以多样化其投资组合的国际投资。
前一笔交易大多围绕基金最大的摇钱树阿尔巴（Alba）进行。该公司正斥资35亿美元开发第六条生产线，将产能扩大三分之一以上，达到每年145万公吨。该项目将于2019年投产，将使阿尔巴成为全球最大的单一冶炼厂。
After winning government approval for the expansion in 2014, Mumtalakat, working with the EDB, has been busy seeking to entice manufacturing companies to set up in Bahrain and absorb Alba’s increased output. “The objective is to maximize downstream — you know, keep the value in the country, which I agree with,” says CEO Murray. Manufacturers in Bahrain currently take about half of Alba’s production. The company exports 16 percent of its output to countries in the Middle East, mainly Saudi Arabia. About 5 percent goes to the U.S., with the remainder split between Europe and Asia. Al Kooheji expects that the company will sell roughly half of its increased output to domestic manufacturers. With the new investment, he explains, “the downstream cost is much lower, and it creates more jobs and it’s commercial.”
11月，Mumtalakat签署了1.5亿美元的合资企业，共同铸件，印度合金轮生产商，建造铝制铸造和车轮制造厂，年产量25,000公吨。该设施将位于毗邻Alba的冶炼厂的新工业园区，该园区正在由Mumtalakat和EDB开发。主权基金将持有49％的股份，该股份将创造约600项新工作岗位。“他们真正推动的地方就是进入组件制造或制造，因为这是你在就业中获得真正的涟漪，”默里说。
“We like the fact that Mumtalakat can help drive development in the country on commercial terms,” says EDB chief Al Rumaihi. Explains fund CIO Ali:“When our guys are looking for proprietary opportunities, this is exactly what we’re looking for: What industries make sense here? The obvious example is downstream aluminum.”
与此同时，大多数阿尔巴在巴林的现有客户计划使用alba扩展。“每次他们都有增长，他们都会来与我们协调，”中缆营董事馆长哈米德拉希德Al Zayani说，它在奥巴巴旁边的工厂制作电气传输电缆。该公司目前每年服用约300,000吨的液态金属，或约占Alba产出的约30％。
On the international front Mumtalakat looks for minority stakes in mature companies where it can secure board representation, says CIO Ali. The fund has turned to experienced international partners to help it get its feet wet and has struck three deals in the past 16 months.
2014年10月，该基金加入了InvestCorp来获取Pro Unlimited，A Boca Raton，佛罗里达州的软件提供商，帮助公司管理他们的队伍，包括顾问，自由职业者和独立承包商。同一个月的月份与迪拜的Fajr资本合作，U.S. alternative-investments firm Blackstone Groupto take a significant minority stake in Dubai-based GEMS Education, which operates more than 50 private K-12 schools around the world. Last year the fund joined with Investcorp again to acquire Nobel Learning Communities from New York–based Leeds Equity Partners. Nobel, based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, runs 176 schools in the U.S., from preschool to secondary level, and offers online college preparatory programs to students in more than 55 countries. Terms of the three deals weren’t disclosed.
“在我们既非常透明的方面，我们共同努力顺利，我们分享我们来自勤奋电话的地方，”北美企业投资董事总经理Maud Brown说，投资委员会的董事长Maud Brown说。她的团队采购了专业人士和诺贝尔交易，她戴着两家公司的董事会。
尽管Mumtalakat商业汇款,board of directors, which consists predominantly of government officials, likes to invest in companies that could forge ties in Bahrain in the longer term, according to the EDB’s Al Rumaihi. Referring to GEMS Education, he notes that the sovereign fund “has a financial investment there, but it makes it more interesting that GEMS also could potentially invest in Bahrain. So we like the linkage back to the country.” As part of the investment, the company will divide its operations into two discrete geographic entities. The capital from Blackstone, Fajr Capital and Mumtalakat will be devoted to expanding the company’s business in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.
The fund plans to continue its push into international markets, but CIO Ali notes that the lack of inflows from the government or oil revenue means there’s no pressure to deploy capital. “If all we do is buckle down and work on the existing portfolio — and there’s a lot of work to be done there — that’s actually fine,” he says. •
Follow Jess Delaney on Twitter at@jdelaney_NYC。
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