How did Jared Kushner get $2 billion from the Saudis?

Investors in these kinds of funds do not generally drop $2B into a fund headed by a guy with zero fund experience. What, other than profits, could be the reasons for MBS to do this and against the advice of SA’s fund advisory board?

 

Maybe that the guy that had a large hand in the Abraham Accords and is going to be one of the first stops for any Israeli start up looking for funding, is a good investment. I think MBS wants to be able to get into the Israeli market and Kushner is a good avenue for that.

Do I think KSA would have invested in Kushner if he had not married into the Trump family and just been another NY Real Estate Type and had zero experience working in the Middle East? No.

I also think that MBS wants to stay on Trump's good side and this is a way to do it. But let's not forget that Biden pushed MBS into the Trump camp when he came into office saying he wanted to make MBS a pariah to the world.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/politics/biden-jamal-khashoggi-saudi-arabia.html

 

Yeah, why let a brutal murder of a US resident get in the way of business?

 

I do not follow LIV all that much but from what I have seen, all the players are on teams. Supposedly the idea is that eventually LIV's thinks they will be able to sell every team as its own franchise. That is how they are suppose to make the ROI but I'm with you as I do not see it happening.

 

all about giving ksa wealth fund cover to invest in Israeli start-ups and diversify their income and connections to the israeli tech sector. definitely a good thing but driven much more by economics than good intentions

 

So we have to takes sides in the Middle East. Do you want to side with the one that has killed one US citizen (KSA) or hundreds/thousands of them (Iran)? I wish this were not the case but it is.

 

It is more about the Sunni States wanting to team with Israel to contain Iran and not having to wait on the Palestinians. The more they can all work together on tech and economic to gain advantages on Iran, the better. After Israel has been eating Iran's lunch for most of last year, I would expect the Sunni's to want to accelerate those efforts.

 

no. it is greenwashing, just like the bribe to Kushner. pay $$ to improve their reputation. same thing as the exorbitant fees for Kushner.

you neglected to answer the question about potus hawking everything from soap to shoes to cologne to crypto. no problem with major financial interests under the control of Erdogan (trump tower Istanbul) of massive amounts of income and political favors for patents, business licenses and the such Xi?

 

their own investment board recommended against it and MBS personally overrode their recommendation....nothing to see here

Saudi Arabia: Panel advising sovereign wealth fund objected to $2bn funding of Kushner firm | Middle East Eye

Previously undisclosed documents show the panel that screens investments for the $620bn Public Investment Fund (PIF) cited concerns about the proposed deal with Kushner’s Affinity Partners, a newly formed private equity firm, the New York Times wrote on Sunday.

Objections cited by the panel included: the "inexperience" of fund's management; a proposed asset management fee that seemed: "excessive”; and “public relations risks” arising from Kushner’s previous role as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, former US President Donald Trump, according to minutes of the panel’s meeting in June.

Despite the objections, the full board of the PIF - headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a close ally and beneficiary of Kushner’s support when he worked at the White House - overruled the panel's objections.

 

What are the exorbitant fees Kushner is charging?

Again, is that against the law or a norm you think should be followed? I really do not like any of it but I do not think it is illegal.

This is a question an actual question as I do not know but does Trump own the Trump Tower in Turkey or did he just license his Brand to it? From what I have read, Trump does not really build anything any more and just does deals to license his name to projects.

 

don't disagree that Iran doesn't want KSA and Israel cooperating. just saying that containing Iran is only one benefit of gaining access to the Israeli investment opportunities. their medical and tech research is world class

 

$157M in fees up through 2024 is what the article quotes. $0 in profits returned, additional capital raised to supplement the fund.

I would challenge anyone to find a $3B fund that didn't return a single red cent in profit in 5 years while generating those kinds of fees.

doesn't amtter if he owns it or if he licenses it, if Erdogan wants to diminish the value he can do so easily and that impacts djt pocketbook

 

you are making excuses for the inexcusable. djt is for sale and the ksa are buyers and kushner is the broker taking a cut.

 

Are 1.25% to 2% fees exorbitant? It would seem those are common in the industry. Also, they are in year 3 of the fund, not 5.

This is from the NYTimes article:

Saudi Arabia pays Affinity an annual fee of 1.25 percent of its investment, while the three other known investors pay between 1.25 and 2 percent in fees, though Affinity Partners would not disclose exactly how much.

This led the committee staff to estimate that through the end of 2024, a total of $157 million in fees will have been paid to Affinity Partners, with $87 million of that from Saudi Arabia. If the total amount is calculated just for three years based on 1.25 percent fee minimum for all investors, that would mean at least $112.5 million in total fees through July and at least $75 million from Saudi Arabia.

A fixed 2 percent management fee, imposed annually from the start of a private equity firm as it is evaluating the market and making its investment, is relatively common in the industry.

How do you know Erdogan could diminish the value? Have you seen the licensing agreement if that is what it actually is?

 

So, the Clintons were also for sale?

Like I said, I would be fine with Congress passing laws that require cooling off periods for all of this.

But a lot of people on this board did not raise any of these objections when the Clinton's were doing this with the CGI and defended them when Republicans raised objections. And now that the Clinton's are expendable as the no longer have any political future, Democrats are willing to come out and say it is wrong, long after it has any real meaning.

 

Not an unreasonable inference considering that the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund was one of the largest if not the largest shareholder in the Canadian Company. As far as Clinton is concerned the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative are/were legitimate charitable endeavors not the same as family owned real estate development company.

 

We disagree on a what is reasonable and the CGI being different than a family run business.

 

The difference isn't whether the CGI it's the purpose of the organization. The CGI is a charitable endeavor while the Kushner Company is a family-owned real estate development company intended make money for the Kushner family.