Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has discussed the signing of an agreement between Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a company belonging to asset management giant BlackRock. Under the agreement, SOFAZ is considering committing up to $1.5 billion to be managed by GIP.
Aliyev met with the CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, and the CEO of GIP, Adebayo Ogunlesi, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.
According to a release published by the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, the three discussed prospects for cooperation between Sofaz and BlackRock, as well as ‘potential investment in opportunities in Azerbaijan's infrastructure sector’.
They signed a memorandum of intent for long-term cooperation, envisaging long-term partnership and SOFAZ’s plans to consider investing $1.5 billion over the next three to four years in infrastructure funds managed by GIP.
According to the statement, the parties would also assess potential investment prospects for data centres and infrastructure serving regional cloud and artificial demand, in addition to partnership opportunities in the airport infrastructure sector.
BlackRock, one of the largest asset management companies in the world, has been embroiled in a number of controversies, with many criticising it for its effects on the deepening the climate crisis, investments in the arms industry, and in China.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
