ADIA' s direct Real Estate efforts - Anything noteworthy?

Ok, so it's been 3 years since ADIA hired Bill Schwab to head Real Estate and make a move into direct real estate investments.

As I understand it they've recapitalised / refinanced a few old deals they were in and have constrained the number of and amounts invested in the funds they deal with. They've also added to their RE team over the past couple of years.

How do you guys think things have panned out for them with regards to direct investments? Any noteworthy deals from them recently either on the debt or equity side?

Do you think it makes sense for them to take a direct approach to RE debt/equity? What would you do if you were in Schwab's shoes?

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Best Response

I think they suffer from a few issues having tried to deal with them on 2 occasions. 1. While they have staffed up, they get sent every deal teaser under the sun. You need volume of jr/mid-level people to sift through the crap and I'm not sure they have enough junior people. 2. It's tough to attract top talent away from London/NY to live in Abu Dhabi (and it they do it's not like the people will stay long) 3. They hate paying advisers 4. No one really knows how many layers are above Schwab in the IC/approval process. 5. I have heard that a lot of their investment push has to do with the price of oil (but that is more rumour than anything else)

 

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