Germany eyes Kuwait sovereign fund: report

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck plans to meet the managing director of the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), a leading sovereign wealth fund, to improve their relations, a German magazine reported on Saturday.

Weekly Der Spiegel, citing a senior Finance Ministry official as its source, said Steinbrueck planned to meet KIA managing director Bader Al Saad during a trip to the Middle East in late May.

On Friday, Steinbrueck and finance ministers from Nordic and Baltic states called for sovereign wealth funds to operate with transparency and for the states they invest in not to discriminate against them.

Many German politicians are nervous about the influence sovereign wealth funds can wield, and their capacity to buy leading national companies or key national infrastructure.

Steinbrueck, who Spiegel said was also expected to meet the chief of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, planned to take a delegation of parliamentarians with him, seeking to improve mutual understanding.

At nearly 55 years old, the KIA is the world's oldest sovereign wealth fund, managing about $225 billion (Dh828 billion). (Reuters)