SAUDI ARABIA

Thursday, January 24, 2008

SAUDI ARABIA

Nation Plans Its First Sovereign Wealth Fund

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, plans to start its first sovereign wealth fund with about $6 billion, channeling surplus crude-oil revenue into investments in foreign companies.

Fueled by record oil prices and rising currency reserves, sovereign funds have ballooned to $3.2 trillion in assets, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank, based in Frankfurt, Germany.

INVESTING

Buffett Buys Stake In Swiss Re Insurer

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett bought a 3 percent stake in Swiss Reinsurance, the world's largest reinsurer. Buffett's investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, acquired the 11.25 million shares on the open market through its subsidiary, Columbia Insurance, Swiss Re said.

MEXICO

Antitrust Group Studies Telephone Services

Antitrust regulators are investigating Mexico's fixed-line telephone service, dominated by a company under the control of billionaire Carlos Slim.

Mexico's Federal Competition Commission is beginning four investigations to evaluate current "conditions for effective competition" in local, long-distance and wholesale telephone service, the agency announced.

ENERGY

OPEC Revenue Could Rise 26 Percent in '08

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries might get $850 billion in net oil export revenue in 2008, a 26 percent increase from last year's figures, the Energy Information Administration said.

The agency, the statistical arm of the U.S. Energy Department, estimates that members of OPEC earned $675 billion from oil exports in 2007, a 10 percent increase from 2006. OPEC's oil export revenue could decline to $783 billion in 2009, according to data posted on EIA's Web site.

EARNINGS

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, one of the world's biggest copper miners, said profit fell 3 percent in the fourth quarter, to $414 million from $426 million in the comparable period a year earlier. The miner recorded one-time charges of $120 million, including accounting-related adjustments on the price of copper, higher property and equipment costs and debt reduction. Revenue soared to $4.18 billion from $1.64 billion.

Compiled from reports by Washington Post staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg.