Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), one of world’s largest sovereign funds, on Tuesday said it has managed more of its assets in-house in 2014 compared to the previous year.
In its annual review, ADIA said that it managed 65 per cent of its money through external fund managers, marking a drop from the 75 per cent seen in 2013, adding that the company continued to focus on its recruitment efforts.
The review also discussed the performance of various industries during 2014, saying that in real estate, low interest rates and strong demand for yield continued to dominate the investment markets.
“Abundant liquidity made finding attractive investments more challenging, but also created opportunities to selectively dispose of assets and generate value through active asset management,” the review said.
It added that capital flows into the Asia Pacific region continued to slow throughout 2014 as investors grew more cautious on the declaration of China’s economy and its potential impact on the region. However, India began to attract interest once again from global property investors amid high hopes for the new prime minister’s reform agenda.
ADIA said it remained focused on developing assets in Asia’s emerging markets particularly in sectors like for-sale housing, and retail that caters to the middle income class.
As for private equities, global equity volumes during 2014 were in line with the previous year as large amounts of unallocated capital and continued availability of debt-backed buyouts.
“While so-called ‘mega’ buyout activity was muted, this was compensated by an uptick in deals in the $1 billion-$5 billion (Dh3.67 billion-Dh18.36 billion) range,” the review said.
Emerging markets saw an increase in private equity volumes, too, with quarterly deal activities stabilising at roughly $10 billion in Asia, and $5 billion in the rest of the world.
The 20-year and 30-year annualised rates of return for the ADIA portfolio were 7.4 per cent and 8.4 per cent respectively as at the end of the year.
ADIA’s investments span North America, most of South America, a few countries in Africa and the GCC, Europe, Australia, and most of Asia
