Mubadala Had Record Investments as Focus Shifts Away From Energy - Bloomberg

Mubadala Had Record Investments as Focus Shifts Away From Energy - Bloomberg

Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund invested a record amount of money during last year’s global crisis as its focus increasingly shifts into high-growth sectors such as technology and health-care.

Mubadala Investment Co. said new investments amounted to 108 billion dirhams ($29.4 billion) in areas such as technology, life sciences and consumer goods, according to its 2020 results published on Thursday. Its assets under management across the group increased to 894 billion dirhams, compared with 853 billion dirhams in 2019.

As the emirate doubles down on reducing its traditional reliance on oil and gas, Mubadala last year teamed up with private equity firm Silver Lake in technology and Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd.’s retail unit in consumer goods and telecommunications as part of an ongoing investment spree. Mubadala earlier this year said it overhauled its internal structure to help achieve its goal of doubling assets in the next decade.

“We navigated our portfolio through the dramatic macro-economic decline of early 2020, and decided to accelerate the pace of our capital deployment, ending the year with record profit and growth,” said the fund’s managing director and group chief executive officer, Khaldoon Al Mubarak. “In line with our long-term strategy, we increased our investments in sectors where we have high conviction, and with high performing fund managers.”

Funds from Gulf states have been chasing overseas investments to reduce reliance on their oil-dependent home markets. Kuwait’s $124 billion pension fund is reducing its allocation to stocks in favor of alternatives and sees “lots of opportunities” in infrastructure over the next few years, especially in the U.S., its director general said in November.

For 2020, Mubadala said its total comprehensive income rose to 72 billion dirhams from 53 billion dirhams in 2019, citing growth in its public equities portfolio and funds in addition to the company’s assets across various sectors. It said the UAE and the U.S. remain its largest investment geographies but that it also expanded in India, France, China and Russia.

Mubadala realized 104 billion dirhams last year by monetizing mature assets and distributing investments locally and abroad.