Abu Dhabi's Mubadala posts record annual income and investment

Khaldoon al-Mubarak

DUBAI: Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala's total income rose nearly 36% to a record high last year, driven by growth in its public equities portfolio and funds, while it accelerated investment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We navigated our portfolio through the dramatic macroeconomic decline of early 2020 and decided to accelerate the pace of our capital deployment, ending the year with record profit and growth," CEO Khaldoon al-Mubarak said.

Mubadala Investment Co invested 108 billion dirhams ($29 billion) of capital in 2020, the most ever in a single year.

Investments included 4.3 billion dirhams in Reliance Industries-owned Jio, 2.7 billion dirhams in private equity investor Silver Lake and 7.5 billion dirhams through partnerships with CVC, Citadel, iSquared Capital and Apax Partners.

Mubarak doubled down on growth sectors such as technology, life sciences and self-driving technology, while asset sales hit 104 billion dirhams as it exited from some of its mature assets.

The monetisations included a deal worth 16.7 billion dirhams through the sale of its 39% stake in plastics maker Borealis to OMV.

Mubadala posted total comprehensive income attributable to the owner of 72 billion dirhams, up from 53 billion dirhams a year earlier, it said in a statement. Comprehensive income includes net income and unrealised gains such as hedges on financial instruments or foreign currency transactions.

Assets under management rose 4.8% to 894 billion dirhams.

Mubadala is the second biggest sovereign investor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which manages an estimated $700 billion in assets.

Mubarak said technology and life sciences in particular "have been essential to the world over the last year, and we see those sectors bringing greater opportunity for deeper investment."

Mubadala said the UAE and United States remained the largest geographic areas for its portfolio, while it accelerated investments in India in 2020.

It also invested through its sovereign investment partnerships in France, China and Russia last year. -Reuters