Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala outperforms global benchmarks in 2022

Abu Dhabi sovereign investor, Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala), has released its 2022 financial results for the group. The company surpassed global benchmarks, bolstered by active management of its portfolio, robust capital deployment and its monetisation programme.

Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, managing director and group CEO, said: “Despite global headwinds impacting financial markets and investor sentiment, we outperformed benchmarks, staying the course with our long-term strategy of investing in key markets and sectors.”

“We deployed Dhs107bn into sectors shaping the future and delivering a positive impact, including life sciences, renewable energy and digital infrastructure. Mubadala also invested in sectors providing stable financial returns, such as real estate and hard infrastructure. We increased our exposure to other alternative investments, including private equity and private credit, to help weather the disruption to traditional asset classes.

“We continued our active monetisation programme, with proceeds of Dhs106bn to recycle capital into high-potential sectors and geographies, including Asia where we see significant investment potential in technology, digital infrastructure and the energy transition.”

The sovereign investor backed two of the 10 biggest deals in healthcare in 2022, investing alongside EQT in Envirotainer, a provider of cold chain solutions for the pharmaceuticals industry; and, together with Warburg Pincus, in the $2.6bn purchase of Informa Pharma Intelligence, a data and software company for clinical trials and drug development.

After the deal closed the company made an acquisition and subsequently rebranded to Norstella. In renewable energy, Mubadala invested $525m together with BlackRock Real Assets in Tata Power Renewables, one of the largest renewable energy companies in India, as part of Mubadala’s rapidly growing clean energy portfolio.

Along with co-investors including Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) Mubadala also acquired a 100 per cent interest in Skyborn Renewables, the world’s largest private offshore wind developer.

The investment included a stake in GIP’s 50 per cent interest in Bluepoint Wind, a 1.6GW project off the coast of New Jersey and New York.

During the year, Mubadala invested heavily in digital infrastructure, with $350m deployed in PDG, Pan-Asia’s leading data centre platform, along with a further equity commitment of GBP300m in CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, building on an initial GBP500m investment in the company.

Mubadala made further investments in real estate and infrastructure, and other alternative investments, including private equity and credit. This included starting to deploy capital into European real estate credit via a new joint venture with Ares, an alternative investment company; a $2.1bn private equity partnership transaction by it’s wholly-owned asset management subsidiary, Mubadala Capital, with France’s Ardian; and a partnership with KKR to jointly invest across performing private credit opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.

To support capital recycling into high-potential investment areas, Mubadala received proceeds of Dhs106bn, including from the sale of a 24.9 per cent stake in Borealis, the Austrian base chemicals and fertiliser company. The group sold Minas de Aguas Teñidas for $1.87bn with Trafigura.

It also sold its remaining shares in Glencore.

Assets under management across the group remained above Dhs1tn.

Mubadala has stayed the course

Al Mubarak said: “Although the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain we are focused on investing for the long- term based on our convictions.”

Group chief financial officer, Carlos Obeid, added: “As a sovereign investor, we have a long-term investment horizon and institutional patience. Our five-year rolling rate of return is 8.5 per cent, with a return in 2022 of minus 3.1 per cent, meaning Mubadala significantly outperformed global benchmarks during the year. We continue to focus on our capital deployments in line with our strategy, supported by prudent management ofour finances, underlining the strength of our business and investment approach.”

Mubadala outperformed major equity market benchmarks in 2022 which were down including Nasdaq Composite (-33.1 per cent), S&P500 (-19.4 per cent) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (-8.8 per cent).

Photo courtesy: Mubadala Investment Company