Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend I.Khalilova / From 2008 the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) plans to attract foreign management to oversee its assets in connection to the expected income increase as foreign experience could be quite useful.
Shahmar Movsumov, the Executive Director of SOFAZ, sated on 22 June that the number of managers will depend on the attractiveness of the companies submitting their proposals in response to SOFAZ's inquiry, rather than on the amount of the assets.
After the cancellation of the contract with the French bank Societe Generale Asset Management, which received $50mln from SOFAZ for management, SOFAZ's portfolio had only two managers: Clarident (a member of Credit Suisse), which manages $42.4mln of SOFAZ's assets; and Deutsche Bank Asset Management ($72.6mln).
Oil Fund manages the majority of the funds, overseeing 91.4% of the funds. The special weight of funds under the management of Deutschebank comprises 5.4% and Clarident - 3.2%.
However, in 2007 SOFAZ presented an additional $100mln to the management of the World Bank within the framework of RAMP (Reserve Assets Management Programme).
In accordance with existing investment policy, SOFAZ can only hand over 40% of its assets to foreign management.
As of 1 April 2007, assets of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan totaled $1.72bln, an increase by 17.7% over the last year.