Abu Dhabi fund is on lookout for new talent

Dubai: In a world of diminishing returns, Abu Dhabi’s top sovereign wealth fund is hiring as it boosts active management of its estimated $697 billion portfolio. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority plans to “add a number of new positions, mostly within investment and research-focused roles” in its fixed income and treasury department this year, according to its annual report.

The fund’s 20-year annual rate of return fell to 5.4 per cent from 6.5 per cent a year earlier. The fixed income and treasury department “has begun scaling up its active investing, with a view to going fully active in coming years, compared with around 40 per cent currently,” Managing Director Shaikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in the report. The fund raised the portion of actively managed investments to 55 per cent of its portfolio in 2018, up from 50 per cent the previous year.