The Real Estate Behind The World's Largest Sovereign Wealth Funds: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
The world's largest sovereign wealth funds have been moving deeper into real estate. This is especially true of the third-largest sovereign fund in the world, managed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The fund manages $792B in assets, nearly 10% of which are real estate holdings. The Wall Street Journal reports the fund has about $50B worth of real estate spread across 41 countries. While ADIA is notoriously secretive, below are five of the largest purchases it has made in the last few years.
Location: 25 U.S. markets
Date: December 2015
Cost: $3.15B
In partnership with PSP Investments, one of Canada's largest pension funds, ADIA bought 58M SF of core industrial properties from Exeter. The $3.15B price tag made this one of the largest industrial real estate deals of 2015 and expanded ADIA's portfolio to include warehouses and distribution centers across the U.S. in cities like Memphis, Tenn., and Mesquite, Texas.
Location: New York City
Date: Ongoing, expected completion in 2019
Cost: $2.3B
ADIA and GID Development Group are building a 1,132-unit apartment complex project on NYC's Upper West Side. Known as Waterline Square, the three-building project sits on five acres and will be between 34 and 38 stories tall. ADIA and GID, a diversified investment firm in Boston, raised a combined $2.3B to finance the development, which is expected to open in 2019, in November.
Location: New York City
Date: January 2014
Cost: Unknown stake in $1.3B investment
In early 2014 ADIA formed a venture with Singapore's sovereign fund GIC Pte and Related Cos to purchase Time Warner's NYC headquarters for $1.3B. The venture will lease the 1.1M SF office to Time Warner until early 2019, at which point the media company will relocate to Hudson Yards. ADIA's stake in the venture was not disclosed.
Location: New York City
Date: November 2015
Cost: $382M
Blackstone sold Manhattan's London Hotel to ADIA for $382M, or around $680k a room. ADIA is set to rake in $157M in rent from the property through 2136, and the fund also owns the Marriott Edition in Flatiron and the Hyatt Times Square.
Location: Raleigh, N.C.
Date: May 2015
Cost: $103M
Going farther afield from primary markets, ADIA scooped up the 229-room Renaissance Raleigh North Hills hotel for $79.9M and the neighboring 137-room Hyatt House for $22.9M in 2015, further illustrating real estate's transformation from a local business to one drawing international bidders. The Hyatt House opened in 2013, and the Renaissance Raleigh opened in 2008.
