adih to capitalise on opportunities in distressed assets
Shifting to "Real" Economy Enabled Us to Leverage Assets, says Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Abu Dhabi Investment House
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Fawaz Al Jowder, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Abu Dhabi Investment House (ADIH), told CNBC Arabiya, that the company has extended its operations to North Africa including Morocco and Tunisia, and South East Asia. Al Jowder added that the company has also made significant investments in funds such as the India Entertainment City, part of the Qatar Entertainment City.
In an interview with CNBC Arabiya's 'The Compass' show, Al Jowder highlighted that the company increased its capital in June of last year from AED 605 million to AED 984 million, representing a significant 63% increase.
Al Jowder also noted that under the leadership of the company's board of directors, the company shifted its direction in 2008 towards the "real economy", which includes health, agriculture, communications and clean energy sectors. He added that the company increasingly changed its strategy in 2005, 2006 and 2007 from traditional investment, real estate and financial markets methods.
In addition, Al Jowder said that these changes were introduced in 2006 and included the 'Vision 3' alliance between Abu Dhabi Investment House, Gulf Finance House and Ithmaar Bank. The goal of the alliance is to leverage their combined experience across a variety of sectors in the identification of unique investment opportunities within the hospitality, infrastructure and agricultural sectors, including InfraCapital, the GGC’s first Islamic investment bank focused on infrastructure and AgriCap, a fund given over to the development of numerous agricultural projects.
He pointed out that the company's venturing into the 'real economy' has enabled it to raise and maintain the value of its assets, pointing that that the company's assets rose from AED 853 million in 2007 to AED 1.54 billion in 2008, a 81% increase.
Al Jowder underlined that the company made a successful final exit, after two years of the five-year planned, from Arabi Private Equity Fund in Q2 of 2008 with a 20.2% Internal Rate of Return (IRR).
He also highlighted the company's investments in the private sector, in addition to launching the Shariah-compliant AED 400 million Al Joud fund, the new GCC listed equities fund, which performed exceptionally. Until now, the company did not venture into America or European markets and is considering capitalising on distressed assets in these markets, concluded Al Jowder.
