Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund is to undergo a recruitment drive as it looks to increase the active management of its near €700 billion investment portfolio.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) increased its active investments by 5% in 2018 which now account for 55% of its investment portfolio according to its annual report and it is set to increase this further in 2019.
The report states that it plans to “add a number of new positions, mostly within investment and research-focused roles” in its fixed income and treasury department.
The fund has begun scaling up its fixed income and treasury activity with a view to going fully active, compared to around 40% currently.
In addition ADIA is also looking to make its private equity team more active and sourced 40% of its investments in 2018, compared to 30% of the previous year.
The changes come amid a fall in ADIA’s 20-year annual rate of return from 6.5% to 5.4%. Ranked as the third largest sovereign wealth fund, ADIA is one of many looking to take a more direct role in their investments and to boost their own in-house teams in order to generate more returns in the current low interest rate environment.
The Abu Dhabi fund currently manages around 45% of its investments in-house, up from just 25% in 2013.
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