Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan's state oil fund SOFAZ, an entity that accumulates and manages Azerbaijan's oil and gas revenues, plans to invest $500 million in bonds, denominated in Chinese Yuan in June of this year.

The relevant agreement has already been signed with the Chinese Central Bank, SOFAZ Executive Director Shahmar Movsumov told Trend Agency last week.

"We already have an agreement with the Central Bank of China, and a few days ago our securities committees signed a document, after which we can start investing," he noted.

Last week the State Securities Committee of Azerbaijan and China Securities Regulatory Commission signed a memorandum aimed to ensure the investors' protection and promote the integrity of securities and futures markets and other related investment instruments by expanding the scope of cooperation, strengthening the exchange of regulatory and technical information.

China, as the second largest economy in the world remains an attractive market for the growing number of foreign investors. Prospects of the Chinese Yuan as an additional investment currency attract considerable interest of various categories of investors, including sovereign wealth funds.

Movsumov went on adding that SOFAZ also plans to invest in real estate in Japan.

Established in 1999, SOFAZ's investment strategy is aimed at pursuing real estate across Asian markets to diversify its portfolio.

While purchasing real estates abroad, SOFAZ prefers high quality office and retail properties in the central cities of the world countries with developed and transparent real estate markets.

Earlier SOFAZ purchased Gallery Actor, a mixed-use office and retail complex located on Pushkin Square in Moscow for $133 million, an office complex in London's West End for £177.35 million and a property in Paris for €135 million, and Pine Avenue Tower A worth $447 million in Seoul.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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