Abu Dhabi builds a new deal machine around its Crown Prince

Mubadala’s CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak is also on the board on L’imad.

• Sheikh Khaled now oversees Abu Dhabi's new wealth fund, L’imad Holding Co.
• L’imad merges ADQ and may channel more oil revenue for global investments.
• Abu Dhabi's power structure and financial goals shift.

Did our AI summary help?

Donald Trump’s whirlwind tour of the Middle East last year included breakfast with Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince. The US president was seeking billions of dollars in investment, and the Emirati royal is now in pole position to deliver.

“We are not as big as the United States Mr. President, but we punch above our weight,” the crown prince told Trump at the time. That comment spotlighted the city’s ambitions and Sheikh Khaled’s heft, which has ballooned in recent days.

He now oversees the emirate’s newest wealth fund, created by folding the $263 billion sovereign investor ADQ into an entity called L’imad Holding Co. This firm is likely to be positioned as the first point of contact for international investors and more of the emirate’s surplus oil revenue may be funneled into L’imad in coming years, people familiar with the matter said.

Signs of the push behind the new fund are also present in the people handpicked to run it. L’imad — support or pillar in Arabic — counts Jassem Al Zaabi as its chief executive officer, a man described by some as among the country’s most influential non-royals.

ADQ had until now been helmed by the prince’s uncle, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, who also oversees the $1 trillion Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the city’s main artificial intelligence firms, and its biggest lender. The sparse release laying out Abu Dhabi’s reshaping of its $2 trillion sovereign fund landscape didn’t mention the senior royal, also the United Arab Emirates’ national security advisor, who helped negotiate a $1.4 trillion investment commitment with Trump.

This account is based on conversations with people familiar the matter, who declined to be identified discussing sensitive information. Some said the recent changes offered a glimpse into the evolving power structures in Abu Dhabi, which bankers and investors the world over have increasingly tapped to bankroll deals. The moves will now train the spotlight on Al Zaabi and the 44-year-old crown prince, they said.

Abu Dhabi’s ministry of foreign affairs didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The crown prince is “acquiring ever more important portfolios in national security and cyber security but also now getting more power and influence in the realm of geo-economics, which is the backbone of Abu Dhabi’s power,” said Andreas Krieg, a lecturer in Middle Eastern security issues at King’s College in London.

This marks a generational shift beyond the sons of UAE founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, he said. That group includes ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Sheikh Tahnoon, and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, chairman of Mubadala Investment Co.

For titans of finance, the moves mean they’ll now have to contend with a more complex power structure in Abu Dhabi. For his part, on his trips to the emirate, BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink attempts to first meet Sheikh Mohammed, followed by Sheikh Tahnoon and Sheikh Khaled, one person familiar with the matter said.

BlackRock declined to comment.

The Money Men

Sheikh Khaled was named crown prince in 2023. At the time, the ruler also promoted his own siblings, expanding their responsibilities and portfolios in a careful division of power.

That led to Sheikh Tahnoon playing an outsize role in the business of Abu Dhabi, while the crown prince focused on the political and social aspects of running the country. Now, Sheikh Khaled has oversight of some of the emirate’s most important companies in his role atop a fund that’s already shown signs of global ambition.

Late last year, it joined established Gulf wealth funds and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in attempting to back Paramount Skydance Corp.’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

By the crown prince’s side will be Al Zaabi.

As chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Finance, he has been instrumental in ensuring coordination among all major Abu Dhabi entities, people familiar with the matter said. That makes him key to decision-making when it comes to deciding which sovereign entities get assigned Abu Dhabi’s oil money.

He wears other hats, including secretary general of Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs and is a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. Crucially, he’s said to be close to both Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Tahnoon, making him unusually well-positioned to coordinate across all the emirate’s spheres of influence.

In addition to Al Zaabi, Mubadala’s globally-influential CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak is also on the board on L’imad. Unlike the latter who has celebrity status in the UAE, Al Zaabi cuts a more discreet profile on the global stage. But to the bankers, asset managers and corporates looking to navigate Abu Dhabi’s trillions, he’s every bit as essential.

The new fund’s dealmaking is likely to be shaped at least in part by the duo, in conjunction with other longtime advisers of Abu Dhabi’s ruler, some people familiar with the matter said.

Wall Street Visits

Discussions on establishing L’imad began well before it was unveiled to the world, with some personnel from the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance helping to lead its creation, people familiar with the matter said. Despite making headlines for backing Paramount, the fund is still being built from the ground up and is operating without a website.

It will join Abu Dhabi’s other state-backed firms, which have been among the world’s most active investors, doing deals across sectors ranging from finance to artificial intelligence. The creation of another entity raises questions over whether the emirate needs to have so many different pockets of state-owned capital.

Bankers and executives describe L’imad’s chairman, the crown prince, as a newer figure within dealmaking in Abu Dhabi and few have clear impressions yet on how he will deal with the world of finance. In recent months, many have ramped up their efforts to form a relationship.

Abu Dhabi’s official social media accounts have highlighted a series of meetings between the crown prince and executives ranging from the CEO of Cisco Systems Inc. to the head of State Street Corp. and even the prime minister of Singapore.

That follows a period where the emirate has steadily elevated the prince on the international scene. The royal took Trump on a visit to an Abu Dhabi mosque last year, and before that attended Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome. In January, the prince was present as his father met with Kushner and other delegates participating in talks about Ukraine held in Abu Dhabi.

His new role at L’imad elevates him on the global business scene as well.

“It’s looking like SWF governance is a training ground for running a country,” said Jim Krane, a research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “In the UAE, which likens itself to a big corporation, this strategy makes sense.”