Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala invested $107 billion in 2022 in future-forward industries including life sciences, renewable energy and digital infrastructure, and outperformed major market benchmarks despite the challenging market conditions.
Reporting its 2022 financial results on Friday, Mubadala said it has more than AED1 trillion ($276 billion) in assets under management.
Commenting on the year, 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 AED107 billion ($29.14 billion) into sectors shaping the future and delivering a positive impact. 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 program, with proceeds of AED106 billion ($29 billion) 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.
“Although the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, we are focused on investing for the long-term based on our convictions.”
Mubadala’s portfolio mix was broadly similar to 2021, with 36 percent direct and indirect in private equity, 27 percent in public markets and 15 percent in real estate and infrastructure.
Gearing ratio of 8.5 percent was down from the previous year, reflecting the company’s prudent management of its finances and a strong cash position to manage the current economic cycle with a long-term view.
Carlos Obeid, Group Chief Financial Officer, 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 percent, with a return in 2022 of minus 3.1 percent, meaning Mubadala significantly outperformed global benchmarks during the year.”
In 2022, Nasdaq Composite was down 33.1 percent, while S&P500 was down 19.4 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average was 8.8 percent lower.
Mubadala’s major deals in 2022
Mubadala reported proceeds of AED106 billion, which included sale of stakes in Borealis, miner Minas de Aguas Teñidas and its remaining shares in Glencore.
The fund backed two of the biggest healthcare deals in 2022 – investing 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. Informa is now rebranded as Norstella after making an acquisition following the deal.
Mubadala invested $525 million together with BlackRock Real Assets in Tata Power Renewables, one of the largest renewable energy companies in India. Along with co-investors, it also acquired a 100 percent interest in Skyborn Renewables, the world’s largest private offshore wind developer. The investment included a stake in co-investor Global Infrastructure Partners’ 50 percent interest in Bluepoint Wind, an innovative 1.6GW project off the coast of New Jersey and New York.
Mubadala also invested heavily in digital infrastructure, with $350 million deployed in PDG, Pan-Asia’s leading data center platform, along with a further equity commitment of GBP300 million in CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent Full Fibre platform, building on an initial GBP500 million investment in the company.
In real estate and infrastructure, Mubadala started to deploy capital into European real estate credit via a new joint venture with Ares, an alternative investment company and a $2.1 billion private equity partnership transaction by its wholly-owned asset management subsidiary, Mubadala Capital, with France’s Ardian. In partnership with KKR, it jointly invest across performing private credit opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mubadala does not release annual data irrelevant to a long-term investor, such as annual revenue or net income.
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