Mubadala Development Company, an Abu Dhabi investment arm which manages over $10 billion in assets, has said it will develop an offshore island into a new business district that will house the stock exchange.

Suwa Island, off Abu Dhabi’s coast, will be developed by John Buck International, a joint venture Mubadala set up in March with Chicago-based real estate firm The John Buck Company.
“It is a multi-billion-dirham development and construction has already started,” Carlos Obeid, Mubadala’s chief financial officer, told a news conference. ‘The island will be home to the new headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.”
Obeid said the project would be funded by a mix of equity and debt but would not provide details on actual costs.  “We are in discussions with financial institutions for the debt part and Mubadala will provide the equity,” he said.
Mubadala’s global shareholdings include a 7.5 per cent stake in the Carlyle Group. The wealthy emirate controls the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves.
Obeid said the 570,000 sq m development will include commercial and residential buildings as well as a hotel and retail space.
“There is tremendous demand for commercial real estate in Abu Dhabi fuelled by the growth of the economy,” he said.
Earlier this year, Mubadala announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Liwa Energy Ltd, had purchased a 20 per cent stake in Shell’s current exploration and production ventures in Algeria.
Also this year, it was announced that Mubadala and Dubai Aluminium planned to jointly develop a greenfield aluminium project at King Abdullah Economic city. The planned smelter would have an initial capacity of 700,000 tonnes per year.
The two parties are in the process of building in stages what could be the world’s largest single-site aluminium smelter of 1.4 million tonnes in Abu Dhabi.
Mubadala is a 100 per cent owner of companies including Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co, Abu Dhabi Knee and Sports Medical Centre and Abu Dhabi Terminals. The company also has investments in Abu Dhabi Ship Building, Barka Power Plant, Dolphin Energy Co, Beni Saif Aluminium Centre, the Carlyle Group, Nigerian telecommunications licence and petroleum explorations in Libya and Oman, among other ventures.
It is a 35 per cent owner of Piaggio Aero International and holds a 5 per cent stake in Ferraari.