Khazanah Nasional Berhad (“Khazanah”) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Khazanah Europe Investment Limited (“KEIL”), will set up an office in London, United Kingdom.
KEIL, to be headed by Executive Director Javier Santiso, will provide advice and support on investments in Europe which are of strategic interest to Khazanah. The establishment of the KEIL regional office in London – to be operational by the third quarter of 2015, subject to relevant regulatory approvals – is envisaged to help deepen Khazanah’s exposure in developed markets and will enable Khazanah to better evaluate opportunities in technology-enabled sectors in Europe. KEIL will also complement the acceleration of Malaysia’s innovation agenda and will act as a bridge to strengthen current and future collaborations between Malaysia and European countries, especially the United Kingdom. Khazanah currently has regional offices in Beijing, Mumbai, San Francisco and Istanbul.
Khazanah Managing Director Tan Sri Dato’ Azman Hj. Mokhtar said: “Europe represents another strong hub to both technology firms and start-up ventures and is home to many leading universities with state-of-the-art research facilities. The establishment of KEIL will provide a platform to enhance business linkages between Malaysia and Europe and to help accelerate Malaysia’s very own innovation and technology capabilities. European countries provide tremendous potential that Khazanah can tap into especially in diversifying our investments portfolio with developed market risk-return profile.”
Khazanah’s expansion into the European continent is part of its larger strategy to become more global in scope. As of 30 June 2015, Khazanah’s overseas investments represent approximately 16.5% (by domicile of investee companies) of its realisable asset value (“RAV”) of RM144.1 billion. By geographic exposure , the percentage is bigger and represents approximately 44% of RAV.
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