LONDON: Global corporate mergers and acquisitions activity involving sovereign wealth funds rose to more than $12 billion in the second quarter with 33 deals completed, Thomson Reuters data showed on Monday. Global announced M&A volumes involving state investment vehicles stood at $12.5 billion in the second quarter, up from just $1.1 billion in the first three months of this year. The number of deals rose to 33 from 24 in the January-March period. A month and half into the third quarter, sovereign wealth funds have made 13 M&A deals worth $2 billion. Of this, they have been on the buy side on six deals, worth $590 million. At the height of the boom in the first quarter of 2006, sovereign wealth funds sealed 35 deals worth $45.7 billion. After a poor performance during the financial crisis, many sovereign wealth funds have shifted focus away from aggressive investment abroad and instead put money into assets at home or into "strategic" foreign assets, such as food and energy, that fit in with national economic policy. Over the past year they also have been expanding their portfolio in emerging and frontier markets, where some of them have invested in long-term infrastructure or resource projects. Separate Thomson Reuters data showed stakes in British and continental European publicly-listed companies held by state-owned investment funds have fallen slightly since the start of 2010 after sharp rises in 2009.
