Real estate strategy for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority used to be simple and could be boiled down to one word: diversification. The giant Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund bought trophy retail and office assets in big global cities and that was enough to turn it into the biggest real estate owner in the world. For the past five years or so, however, things have not been so straightforward due to changes in the market and because of unique problems faced by this particular behemoth, namely a steady exodus of top management. Now, it has decided to pivot. A strategy document quietly published on the opaque fund’s website last month sheds some light on a strategic overhaul. It suggests ADIA is moving away from a strategy of trying to profit from the real estate market through diversification, coming closer in ethos to big private equity funds like Blackstone and Carlyle. According to the document, it plans to pick a few strategies and go big on them. And where ADIA goes, other sovereign wealth funds often follow. 
“In previous cycles, we were successful in building a broadly diversified and well-distributed real estate portfolio, from both a sub-sector and geographical point of view,” ADIA Deputy Director of Real Estate and Infrastructure Salem Al Darmaki said in the strategy paper. “Through extensive in-house research and…  Read the full story here. | 
