Global pandemic has changed the world forever says Mubadala chief

Abu Dhabi: Companies and businesses around the world will have to adapt to the new reality of a post-COVID world or risk getting left behind according to Khaldoon Al Mubarak, managing director and group CEO of Mubadala, who emphatically stated that there won’t be a return to business as usual.

“What we’re going to see post-COVID is a change in the whole supply chain equation; countries, companies and how they look at supply chains, how they look at the efficiency of regional distribution around the world.

“I think for people to think that post-COVID things are going to go back to normal, if you think that way you’re finished [because] it’s not,” he added.

“The companies and countries and individuals that are able to pivot and really look at this new world will be the ones that succeed post-COVID.”

Al Mubarak said that Mubadala itself has had to adapt to the current situation, with the group largely managing to maintain operations away from the office.

“COVID-19 has dramtically and substantially moved us to the digital age, today we’re a financial investor and we’ve been able to operate essentially from home throughout the crisis.

“The ability to maneuver and to operate from home and not interrupt business at all, I think that’s one of the major learning’s that all of our businesses have been able to take from this experience,” he added.

Commenting on Mubadala’s investment outlook, Al Mubarak said the group would continue to broaden its portfolio into new sectors and regions, with the company currently looking at the potential of hydrogen investments as it looks to expand its renewable energy investments.

“We have a lot of interest in hydrogen, we’ve been spending time educating ourselves about that space and formulating investment thesis’; and in the same way these things take time.

“Solar it took us 10 years to get to where we are, nuclear power is a long journey, it’s a 10 year journey to get where it is,” he added.

And despite the global pandemic, Al Mubarak made clear that Mubadala continued to be active in looking for new investment opportunities.

“We’ve been diligent, we’ve been active, we’ve been deploying capital and finding opportunities and really shifting our portfolio to the direction that we were planning on going to maybe in an albeit slower pace in a much faster pace right now.

“And accordingly, the way we operate, the way we invest as Mubadala and look like as Mubadala has changed,” he added.