"US awareness tends to be fairly low, especially as compared to some of the developing countries," says Cox, VP of Hill & Knowlton's corporate practice. "So this is a sort of a missed opportunity for people who hold the properties and are looking for buyers."

Additionally, Cox says, "we found that depending on who the buyer was—which sovereign wealth fund and what part of the world they're from—the attitude varied considerably from 'fine, bring them on in' to skepticism." Norway's sovereign fund, for example, rates a warmer welcome than those of Algeria, Nigeria and Botswana. There's also a tendency to be suspicious of the political motives of sovereign funds in Russia or China, the survey found.

"One of the challenges, depending on the type of investment or which country it is, is to have some more communication and packaging to switch that around," says Cox. "Some of the funds understand the business and want to be visible in ways that attract the right opportunities. Others don't communicate as well, and when they don't, there's a suspicion that their investments are just an extension of political policy."

He describes a "burden of communication" among the funds. "Even for people that deal with them, it's important that they explain the deal in the right way," Cox says. "Where we've found hazards in the past is when a deal was a surprise because it wasn't explained well or was misunderstood."

Conducted by Hill & Knowlton and Penn Schoen Berland, the survey discovered "gaps" in communication that sovereign funds have an opportunity to address. "There's also a chance in the US, particularly for people in real estate, to explore sovereign wealth funds, get to understand them a little better and see them as potential buyers or potential investors in projects."

The currently depressed values in US commercial real estate provide an attractive point of entry for sovereign wealth funds, Cox says. "They tend to be long-term investors; they don't need a quick turn in a hot housing market to make money," he says. "They're very much buy-and-hold kind of people."

Hill & Knowlton and Penn Schoen Berland interviewed 1,064 decision makers from the US, UK, Germany, Egypt and Brazil, India and China this past January and February, to gauge their views on 19 funds across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. They found that only 9% of US respondents take "a much more favorable" view of sovereign wealth funds in general in the current market, compared to 22% of Indian elites and 39% of Brazilians. However, the score improves somewhat for the view of sovereign funds investing during the eventual recovery.

Regardless of respondents' nationality, though, factors such as political and economic stability were deemed important to the reputations of sovereign wealth funds and their host countries. "Those attitudes were pretty uniform across the board,"" Cox says.

Instant Insights /

Wealth Funds Due for Image Polishing

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