Abu Dhabi Wealth Fund to Focus on Tech, Climate Change

An Emirati man wears a protective mask as he walks past buildings in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Nir Elias/Pool/File Photo
An Emirati man wears a protective mask as he walks past buildings in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Nir Elias/Pool/File Photo
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Abu Dhabi Wealth Fund to Focus on Tech, Climate Change

An Emirati man wears a protective mask as he walks past buildings in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Nir Elias/Pool/File Photo
An Emirati man wears a protective mask as he walks past buildings in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Nir Elias/Pool/File Photo

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) sees technology and climate change as key investment areas for its post-COVID-19 strategy, it said in its 2020 annual review.

As of the end of last year ADIA achieved 20-year and 30-year annualized rates of return of 6% and 7.2% respectively, compared with 4.8% and 6.6% in 2019, it said in its report, published on Wednesday.

"As with any great shock to the status quo, the pandemic has also acted as a catalyst to accelerate a number of important themes in global financial markets," Managing Director Hamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said in the report.

Major areas of focus for the fund include technology, healthcare, renewable energy, and real estate sub-sectors such as logistics and data centers, Reuters reported.

ADIA increased its exposure to renewable energy and through its infrastructure investments it now has an indirect interest in assets with a renewable capacity of more than 20 gigawatts.

On the equities side, its Indexed Fund Department introduced a climate change portfolio last year.

In 2020 ADIA combined previously separate external and internal equities departments, one tasked with overseeing the activities of external managers and the other with managing multiple internal portfolios.

It also created a team - for which it plans to hire more people - tasked with implementing investment strategies using a quantitative, scientific approach, it said.



Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."