Abu Dhabi-based entities are starting to dip back into British assets, indicating that relations could be starting to thaw after a period of diplomatic tensions.
The emirate’s $330 billion sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Co., said Thursday it’s buying a minority stake in London-based Nord Anglia Education Ltd. The state-backed investor is committing $600 million to the firm, which has been bolstered by a surge in demand for premium private education services.
Nord Anglia plans to open more campuses in the Middle East, where it operates several schools, including one in Dubai that charges $52,000 in tuition fees. The international school operator was valued at $14.5 billion including debt when a consortium led by asset manager Neuberger Berman bought a stake in October.
That came hours after Abu Dhabi’s main power utility, TAQA, said it will acquire Transmission Investment Holdings, one of the largest operators of assets connecting offshore wind farms to the UK grid. TI manages about £3 billion ($4 billion) in assets, and the deal was announced a month after the UK government greenlit the acquisition following a national security review.
The moves will add to the United Arab Emirates’ portfolio in Britain. Nord Anglia already counts an entity owned by Dubai’s ruler as one of its backers, while Mubadala has previously invested in CityFibre, which provides broadband infrastructure. Meanwhile, Emirates Telecommunications Group Co., a UAE state-backed firm, is the largest shareholder in Vodafone Group Plc.
The twin announcements follow a period of cooling ties between the countries. Relations soured under the UK’s previous Conservative administration amid the forced sale of the Telegraph newspaper, due to its ties to UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. There was also a dispute over the UAE’s alleged role in the Sudanese civil war.
Meanwhile, Manchester City — the Premier League football club also owned by Sheikh Mansour — faces a potentially costly hearing over alleged breaches of fair play rules. And Abu Dhabi has written off its entire stake in Thames Water, the UK’s largest water utility, which is seeking new ownership while restructuring its debt.
The UK is in the final stages of negotiating a free trade agreement with a group of oil-rich Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg News has reported. A deal with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council is a priority for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who traveled to the region late last year.
That visit came two months after Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves convened a summit aimed at repositioning the UK as a country open for business. The event was attended by Yasir Al Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s $925 billion wealth fund and chairman of Newcastle United Football Club, though none of the UAE’s state-owned investors participated.
Abu Dhabi, whose sovereign wealth funds control over $1.7 trillion in assets, has announced a series of big-ticket investment pledges around the world — $1.4 trillion in the US, $52 billion in France and $40 billion in Italy. Three years ago, the oil-rich city pledged to invest $14 billion in post-Brexit Britain.
