Home ListingNovember 9, 2015

Abu Dhabi to Close UK Office

One of the world’s largest sovereign funds is shutting its London hub.

Reported by Featured Author

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is to close its London office after two decades in the UK capital.

The fund, which has an estimated $770 billion, operates only one satellite office outside its home nation. The vast majority of its 1,700 staff are based in Abu Dhabi.

“ADIA is proposing to close its London office,” a spokesman told CIO. “This has no impact on our investments in, and commitment to, the UK, which will continue as before.”

“This has no impact on our investments in, and commitment to, the UK, which will continue as before.”—ADIA

ADIA declined to offer further information on the London office, its staff, or its role in the overall structure of the fund.

The London hub, which has fewer than 20 staff, does not directly employ investment teams, according to insiders, nor is ADIA is registered with the UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority.

Conversely, in the years since the onset of the financial crisis, ADIA has been bolstering its staff and bringing increasing levels of investment in-house. In its review of 2011, it said some 80% of its assets were managed by third-party managers at the end of that year. By its review of 2014 in June 2015, that figure had dropped to 65%, with a ten percentage point uptick in internal assets in the previous 12 months.

This figure—moving from 75% to 65%—meant the fund had taken around $70 billion out of the asset pool available to the world’s global investment firms in 2014 to be managed internally. During that same 12 months, it had increased its internal investment and operations teams by 150 people.

Additionally, ADIA has appointed internationally recognised specialists to lead its distinct asset class teams.

ADIA remains one of the few large institutional investors to run all investment operations from its home nation. Over the past decade, asset owners from Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East have opened offices around the world to exploit market opportunities.