How The World's Oldest Sovereign Fund Is Facing Management Headwinds

Kuwait Investment Authority, the world’s oldest sovereign fund which backs BlackRock Inc. BLK among other, has fired the head of its London arm, Saleh Al-Ateeqi, asking him to leave without serving the standard three-month notice period, reported Bloomberg.

What Happened: Ateeqi is believed to have clashed with a few long-tenured employees, according to the report. He was hired in 2018 to modernize the Kuwait Investment Office (KIO), which is the London arm. Ateeqi increased the fund’s assets, hired executives including a chief investment officer during his tenure.

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Who Heads KIO Now: The fund appointed Hussain Al-Halabi to head the U.K. branch. Halabi has worked at the St. Martins Property Group, which is the KIA’s London-based real estate investment firm, the report stated.

New Strategy: Under the new chief, the fund may go back to its conservative roots while leaving behind many of the performance-related practices introduced by Al-Ateeqi, sources told Bloomberg.

The issue may end up in court as Al-Ateeqi has registered a complaint with Kuwait’s general prosecutor against the finance minister, who oversees the KIA, Bloomberg reported. Al-Ateeqi said authorities chose not to dismiss an employee who, he suspected, was spying on the wealth fund.