On January 20, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met in Davos with Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, one of the world’s leading asset management firms, and Adebayo Ogunlesi, Founding Partner and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a company within the BlackRock group.
The conversation focused on the current status and prospects for cooperation between the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) and BlackRock, as well as potential investment opportunities in Azerbaijan’s infrastructure sector.
As part of the head of state’s visit to Davos, emphasis was placed on the significance of signing a Memorandum of Intent for long-term cooperation between SOFAZ, BlackRock, and its subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners, a global infrastructure investment management firm. The document envisages continuing the existing partnership within a long-term strategic framework and exploring potential investment opportunities in Azerbaijan under an international infrastructure investment platform. Under the Memorandum of Intent, SOFAZ plans to consider capital commitments of up to $1.5 billion over the next 3–4 years into infrastructure funds managed by GIP and joint investment opportunities. Within the cooperation framework, assessments will be conducted of potential investment prospects in Azerbaijan for data centers and infrastructure serving regional cloud and artificial intelligence demand, as well as partnership opportunities in the airport infrastructure sector, taking into account GIP’s operational and management expertise.
Evaluating investment opportunities in infrastructure assets in Azerbaijan or related to the country is one of the key directions of the cooperation. The Memorandum of Intent will contribute to strengthening SOFAZ’s position in the global investment ecosystem, further expanding cooperation with international partners, and forming long-term investment opportunities in Azerbaijan’s strategically important infrastructure sectors.
At the conclusion of the meeting, a ceremony for the exchange of the Memorandum of Intent was held the participation of the President of Azerbaijan.
