ABU DHABI
European fund manager Ardian will invest $2.5 billion in private equity funds run by Mubadala Capital, an arm of Abu Dhabi’s state fund Mubadala, the companies said on Thursday, the first time Mubadala has accepted capital from a third-party investor.
The deal will see Ardian invest $1.75 billion to take a majority stake in S$2.5 billion portfolio owned by Mubadala Capital. The portfolio includes mainly North American buyout and growth funds as well as direct investments.
Mubadala has also established a new $1.5 billion private equity fund with equal primary capital commitments from Mubadala Capital and Ardian.
“This deal represents one of Ardian’s largest transactions with a sovereign wealth fund,” Ardian’s head of funds and private debt, Vincent Gombault, said in a joint statement by Ardian and Mubadala Capital.
Ardian manages and advises $60 billion of assets, with a team of more than 450 employees based in 12 offices across the world.
Mubadala Capital manages more than $10 billion of assets across its portfolio.
Sovereign investors like Singapore’s Temasek have also executed similar deals, bringing in outside institutional investors in joint deals. In 2014, it launched Astrea II, a co-investment vehicle in which Ardian was an investor.
