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Kuwait’s KIA says to keep Daimler Stake Unchanged | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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KUWAIT,(Reuters) – The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the investment arm of the world’s seventh largest oil exporter, said on Sunday it would keep its 7.2 percent stake in German car maker DaimlerChrysler.

“We are maintaining the stake. We’re quite happy with it. After the problems in the past things have been turning around, looks like it is in a good form now,” KIA’s Executive Director Saleh al-Sagoubi told reporters.

DaimlerChrysler announced in May it would sell an 80.1-percent stake in Chrysler Group to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management [CBS.UL], unwinding the 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler that never worked out as planned.

Dubai International Capital, which bought a $1 billion stake in DaimlerChrysler in 2005, said in May it had sold all its shares in the automaker.

Sagoubi said KIA had been diversifying its portolio into eastern Europe, Australia and the Far East, identifying Russia, China and Vietnam.

“We have been doing so on an continious basis. We have mostly been investing in equities,” he said.

“We are also exploring Africa right now. We are looking at it closely, we are looking at equities to start with,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of a DaimlerChrsyler event.