China Investment Corp's (CIC) $13.7 billion acquisition of warehouse firm Logicor tripled the total value of sovereign wealth funds' (SWFs) merger and acquisition deals in the second quarter to $31.7 billion, just shy of a record set in the third quarter of 2016, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Adding to that, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) was involved in the second-biggest deal of the quarter, for an Australian utility.
SWFs did 29 deals in the second quarter, down from 34 in the first when the total value was $9.9 billion, the data showed.
The second-quarter total was only slightly below the $32.1 billion achieved in the third quarter of 2016.
The second quarter was boosted by a handful of megadeals, including Blackstone selling Logicor to CIC in Europe's biggest ever private equity real estate deal.
"Logistics is the jewel in the crown. It's a very trendy sub-group within real estate because it is connected with e-commerce," said Javier Capape, a director at the Sovereign Wealth Lab research center at the IE Business School in Madrid.
"SWFs are long-term investors looking for disruption, they are looking for the new winners," he said.
CIC was also involved in the third-largest deal of the quarter, a $4.5 billion recapitalization of China Everbright Bank, of which it is the ultimate parent.
CIC completed six deals while Singaporean SWF GIC, which has been on a buying spree for several quarters, did five deals.
JP Morgan Asset Management's head of international institutional clients, Patrick Thomson, said that Asian funds are becoming more active managers.
Investec Asset Management strategist Michael Power said that with oil prices still so low, there has been less of a surplus for some of the oil-based funds to recycle: "So there's an element of the trade-based SWFs taking advantage of the lack of competition."
The QIA was one of the more active Middle Eastern funds.
