Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company is launching a $400 million tech fund that will target investment in European technology companies. Stephen Lock
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company is launching a $400 million tech fund that will target investment in European technology companies. Stephen Lock

UAE-China investment fund commits $1bn for potential investments



Mubadala Investment Company together with its partners in China has committed $1 billion towards about 10 opportunities as part of the $10bn joint investment plan between Abu Dhabi and Beijing in line with the emirate's plans to diversify the economy away from hydrocarbons sector.

“We have made over 10 investment decisions, jointly [with our Chinese partners] and committed close to $1bn across eight to 10 investments,” Khaled Al Shamlan, the head of sovereign investment partnerships at Mubadala Capital told the Abu Dhabi Global Market’s inaugural Belt-and-Road financial summit in Beijing.

“In our short operations of two-and-a-half years in the Chinese market, we have managed to evaluate more than 150 [opportunities for] investments …… some of them are at the closing phase.”

In December 2015, Mubadala, China Development Bank Capital, and China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, agreed to set up a $10bn investment fund. The standalone investment vehicle, which is being equally funded by China and the UAE, aims to deploy capital against jointly-approved investments. It is mandated to look at a range of alternative investment strategies and special investment opportunities, including greenfield projects, with targets of building a balanced portfolio, sustainable returns and principal capital protection.

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Read more:

Mubadala and Greece's Taneo set up €400m co-investment platform

Mubadala sets up VC arm to oversee $15bn Softbank tech investment, two funds

Khaldoon Al Mubarak interview: Mubadala Investment already active on the deal path

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Mubadala, which has more than $200bn of assets under management, and its Chinese co-investors are investing across sectors, Mr Al Shamlan said, without saying when the capital will be deployed.

“This investments vehicle has the agility to invest across different sectors and when it comes to asset classes [it is] agnostic,” he said.

Mubadala has been proactive in snapping up new assets and forging global partnerships to propel the company’s growth and exposure to other regions. The company, which is active in 13 industries and 30 countries around the world, teamed up with Greece’s New Economy Development Fund (Taneo) in March to set up a 400 million euro platform to co-invest in the European country. Under the terms of the agreement, both parties will chip in 200m euros each to the investment vehicle.

Mubadala’s pursuit of growth has also brought it to China, which is the world’s second-biggest economy and the UAE’s top global trade partner. Over the past 20 years China's economy recorded only one year of gross domestic product expansion below 5 per cent, he noted.

Emirates Global Aluminium, a Mubadala portfolio company which is the largest industrial entity in the UAE outside oil and gas, has also recently opened its offices in Shanghai in an effort to expand its footprint and extend its customer base into the region.

Mubadala, through semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries has also set up a joint venture with the government of Chongqing in China to expand its global footprint by establishing a manufacturing facility in the country. The project has made significant progress and a “big announcement will be made in the coming year,” Mr Al Shamlan said.

“As we expand as an entity and as our investment strategy evolves over time, the main goal of Mubadala remains to be a conduit of economic diversification of Abu Dhabi’s portfolio away from hydrocarbons,” he added.

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Match info

Uefa Champions League Group C

Liverpool v Napoli, midnight

'Cheb%20Khaled'
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The specs

AT4 Ultimate, as tested

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Power: 420hp

Torque: 623Nm

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)

On sale: Now

The Perfect Couple

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor

Creator: Jenna Lamia

Rating: 3/5

The five types of long-term residential visas

Obed Suhail of ServiceMarket, an online home services marketplace, outlines the five types of long-term residential visas:

Investors:

A 10-year residency visa can be obtained by investors who invest Dh10 million, out of which 60 per cent should not be in real estate. It can be a public investment through a deposit or in a business. Those who invest Dh5 million or more in property are eligible for a five-year residency visa. The invested amount should be completely owned by the investors, not loaned, and retained for at least three years.

Entrepreneurs:

A five-year multiple entry visa is available to entrepreneurs with a previous project worth Dh0.5m or those with the approval of an accredited business incubator in the UAE.  

Specialists

Expats with specialised talents, including doctors, specialists, scientists, inventors, and creative individuals working in the field of culture and art are eligible for a 10-year visa, given that they have a valid employment contract in one of these fields in the country.

Outstanding students:

A five-year visa will be granted to outstanding students who have a grade of 95 per cent or higher in a secondary school, or those who graduate with a GPA of 3.75 from a university. 

Retirees:

Expats who are at least 55 years old can obtain a five-year retirement visa if they invest Dh2m in property, have savings of Dh1m or more, or have a monthly income of at least Dh20,000.

Zodi%20%26%20Tehu%3A%20Princes%20Of%20The%20Desert
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEric%20Barbier%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EYoussef%20Hajdi%2C%20Nadia%20Benzakour%2C%20Yasser%20Drief%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

The Farewell

Director: Lulu Wang

Stars: Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Diana Lin, Tzi Ma

Four stars

Specs

Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric

Range: Up to 610km

Power: 905hp

Torque: 985Nm

Price: From Dh439,000

Available: Now

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)

On sale: Now

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

City's slump

L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1

The biog

Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi

Age: 23

How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them

Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need

Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman

Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs 

Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing

MO
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The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl, 48V hybrid

Transmission: eight-speed automatic

Power: 325bhp

Torque: 450Nm

Price: Dh359,000

On sale: now