Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala swings to H1 profit

Abu Dhabi’s state fund Mubadala Investment Company made a net profit of Dhs4.2bn ($1.14bn) in the first half of the year, it reported on Thursday, its first set of results since merging with the other state wealth fund, International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

Mubadala made a net loss of Dhs4.7bn in the first half of 2017, it said in a statement.

Total assets rose to Dhs465.5bn at the end of June, from Dhs449.7bn a year ago.

The merged fund, whose investments include stakes in General Electric and private equity firm Carlyle Group, also reported “total comprehensive income” of Dhs6.8bn in the first half of 2017 compared with a “total comprehensive loss” of Dhs5.4bn in the same period last year.

Separating the results for the two funds, Mubadala Development Company made a first-half net attributable profit of Dhs578.4m versus a loss of Dhs4.43bn a year ago, while IPIC made a net attributable profit of Dhs2.67bn, having lost Dhs946.2m in the first half of last year.

“In the first half of 2017, we worked to integrate the two portfolios under the Mubadala Investment Company,” said chief financial officer, Carlos Obeid in a statement.

“We managed our costs prudently, while monetising mature assets and growing our profit as we reduced our overall leverage.”

Mubadala said little about the outlook or its investment plans in its statement, but its CEO Khaldoon al-Mubarak said earlier this year the firm was lining up new overseas investments in 2017 and might also sell or reduce some of its existing stakes in companies.

Mubadala’s revenues in the first half totalled Dhs83.4bn versus Dhs72.9bn in the year-ago period, helped by higher revenues from its oil and gas, semiconductors and aerospace interests, the statement said.

The company also made gains from financial investments and favourable currency, it added.

In August Mubadala sold a 3.9 per cent stake in Advanced Micro Devices in its second sale of shares in the US-based semiconductor company this year. The sale value was $529.6m based on AMD’s closing share price.