Deploying capital to double in size to nearly half a trillion dollars in the next decade, a plan that will vault it into the top ranks of the world’s sovereign wealth funds. With stakes in businesses from Reliance Industries Ltd.’s retail unit to private equity firm Silver Lake, Mubadala was among a few sovereign investors that last year seized on opportunities from a dislocation in markets caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Focus will be on technology, infrastructure, life sciences and other “future-oriented asset classes,” alongside continued investment in renewables and other clean technologies. The capital of the United Arab Emirates that’s home to almost 6 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, is looking to the $232bn fund to harness energy revenue and power broader development at a time when public finances are under strain from lower crude prices. Doubling in size would turn Mubadala into the 10th largest wealth fund around 2030 and will require an annual growth rate of about 7 per cent, Global SWF estimates. Mubadala ploughed $11.5bn into new investments in 2020, or 51 per cent more than the previous year, according to the New York-based adviser and data firm. By contrast, state funds overall invested almost a fifth less last year.
Reshaping its structure to focus on four business platforms: UAE investments, disruptive investments, direct investments and real estate and infrastructure. Mubadala is also changing the way it reports its results. It eliminated categories such as annual revenue and net income, while shifting into multiyear benchmarking against long-term indexes similar to other sovereign entities, as well as beginning to develop a long-term ESG framework. Platform of UAE investments, led by Musabbeh Al Kaabi, groups all of Mubadala’s domestic assets to support the UAE’s economic transformation by building national champions, attracting world-class partners and creating jobs. It will include real estate investments, along with the consolidation of Mubadala’s international infrastructure, both physical and digital.