Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi sovereign investor, intends to increase its presence in Asia by approximately 25 percent of its total portfolio over the next decade as part of a diversification strategy.
In conversation with Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Mubadala’s Head of Asia, Mohamed Albadr, pointed out a “paradigm shift” in the region as a result of the digitalization process.
Currently, Asia now comprises almost 13 percent of Mubadala’s AUM of $330 billion, “but in the next five to 10 years, we would love to see that double,” Albadr added.
Although North America is contributing the lion’s share of 40 percent of the current AUM of the Mubadala, the Asia pivot of the current assets of $43 billion could result in the figure being nearer to $86 billion in less than 10 years.
Albadr indicated that the expansion of Asian assets will be charted using a “multi-strategy approach, whether it’s through private equity, infrastructure or real estate, or through our endowment model, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.”
Albadr stated that the private equity investments have been “driving” a huge amount of deployment, “mainly through large quantities, including in the late stage and buyout space.”
He reported that the core Asian markets of Mubadala are China, Japan, South Korea, and India, which provide with mature private equity market, with exit opportunities through strategies or capital markets.
Albadr said that “China is the centrepiece of our portfolio when it comes to Asia. Today, we have an office in Beijing, we have 35 staff members, and we also have a joint venture office in Hong Kong, and that’s a market where we can see there’s going to be a lot of structural reform.”
In recent investments in China, Mubadala has been part of a consortium that took a majority stake in the mall business of property developer Dalian Wanda at $8.3 billion in 2024.
In the current year, Mubadala also collaborated with the CBC Group, the largest healthcare-focused asset management entity in Asia, to purchase 100 percent of the carve-out of UCB Pharma’s mature business in China.
