Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — Billionaire George Soros’s Soros Fund Management LLC more than doubled its holding in the biggest gold exchange-traded fund in the fourth quarter after bullion advanced 8.9 percent to a record.
The $25 billion New York-based firm became the fourth- largest holder in the SPDR Gold Trust, adding 3.728 million shares valued at $421 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. Its investment was worth about $663 million, the fund’s largest single investment, as of Dec. 31.
Soros joined China Investment Corp. and central banks including those in China and India in acquiring gold. China Investment, the $300 billion sovereign wealth fund based in Beijing, took a 1.45 million-share stake in the SPDR Gold Trust worth $155.6 million, according to a SEC 13F filing posted on Feb. 5.
“The dollar is weak and people are just shifting their money into a safer haven,” Tetsuya Yoshii, vice president for derivative products at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd., said from Tokyo today. “Central banks are adding gold to their reserves and we’re going to see more people adding gold to their investment portfolio as they shift into safer stuff.”
Gold for immediate delivery traded little changed at $1,118.35 an ounce at 2:48 p.m. in Singapore. It rose for a ninth straight year in 2009, reaching a record $1,226.56 an ounce on Dec. 3, as the dollar dropped 4.2 percent against a basket of six major currencies.