» Second Niger Bridge Funds Released «

The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority
(NSIA) managers of the nation’s sovereign fund,
will today release funds as part of its equity
stake in the second Niger bridge, even as it
revealed that it earned N2.5 billion in profits at
the end of the half year 2014 period.
“We are in the process of paying money to Julius
Berger as part of early works for the bridge,”
said Uche Orji, the managing director, NSIA, in a
telephone interview with BusinessDay.
“The SWF made net profits of N2.5 billion as at
June, 2014, while our expenses were flattish to
down,” Orji said.
The profits are 370 percent higher than the
N525 million profits realised by the NSIA in the
15 month period to December 2013.
Half of the profits are realised gains, while the
rest are unrealised gains from the investment
portfolio, based on the market’s performance,
according to Orji.
The Julius Berger-NSIA Motorways Investment
Company (JB-NMIC) Consortium is the preferred
bidder for the development of the Second River
Niger Bridge Project.
The NSIA invests with three funds which are the
Future Generations Fund to which it allocates 40
percent of its assets; Nigerian Infrastructure
Fund (40 percent) and Stabilisation Fund (20
percent).
The Nigeria Infrastructure Fund (NIF) focuses
entirely on domestic investments in selected
infrastructure sectors.
“The Nigeria Infrastructure Fund (NIF), NSIA is
focused on investing in critical infrastructure
that would attract and support Foreign Direct
Investment, promote economic diversification
and enhance growth,” The NSIA said in a
statement in its 2013 FY financial report.
The NSIA has funded three commitments in the
infrastructure fund namely: the Nigeria Mortgage
Refinancing Company, in which it holds 22.7 per
cent stake, fund for agriculture finance and the
second Niger Bridge.
Speaking on the future generations funds (FGF),
Orji said four hedge fund managers were
allocated 25 per cent of the agency’s assets,
across various strategies including global, macro
and long-short equities.
The FGF has an investment horizon of about 20
years.
Orji said the near term view is positive for the
market in 2014, with 80 percent of the FGF
asset allocation in growth assets, 15 percent in
inflation hedge assets and 5 percent in deflation
hedge assets.
Within the growth asset category, the NSIA has
allocated 25 percent to equities, split 15 percent
to emerging markets and 10 percent to
developed markets.
‘‘We have also allocated 25 percent to absolute
return funds, another 25 percent to private
equity funds and 5 percent to other diversifiers.
Within the inflation protection assets, we have
allocated 10 percent to real assets and 5 percent
to commodities. And finally we have retained 5
percent in cash as deflation protection for the
portfolio,’’ he said.
The Private Equity (PE) fund would also be fully
allocated by December, according to Orji.
While there was no direct exposure to Nigerian
equities for the period, there was a little indirect
exposure through investments in Emerging
Markets (EM) fund managers with Nigerian
assets in their portfolios.
‘’We are not considering direct exposure to
Nigerian equities for now,’’ Orji said.
businessDay aug.11.2014