Mubadala teams up with France’s Engie to develop electric vehicle charging platform in UAE

Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment arm, signed a preliminary agreement with French utility Engie to develop a digital platform to charge electric vehicles in the UAE capital and across the Middle East.

As part of the agreement, the two companies will collaborate on developing a joint solution for the installation and operation of charging infrastructure in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, and will explore areas related to sustainable mobility, Mubadala said on Tuesday.

“Mubadala is committed to driving sustainability in the UAE and the wider region by laying the foundation and advancing future-focused sectors in the fields of technology and mobility,” said Badr Al Olama, Mubadala’s executive director of UAE Investments.

“Our agreement with Engie will support developing a digital platform for charging electric vehicles, and creating accessible, safe and sustainable mobility solutions to support the UAE’s climate action agenda.”

The UAE is expanding efforts to shift to greener technology, most notably under its Net Zero 2050 Strategic Initiative, which calls for Dh600bn ($163.37bn) to be invested in clean and renewable energy sources in the next three decades.

EVs are expected to play a major part in this programme, as transport is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions.

Global carbon dioxide emissions reached their highest annual level in 2021, rising by 6 per cent to 36.3 gigatonnes, figures from the International Energy Agency show.

Global sales of EVs more than doubled to 6.6 million in 2021, according to the Paris-based IEA.

The willingness of consumers in the UAE to use EVs has continued to attract investments. Tesla Motors, the world’s biggest EV manufacturer, opened its showroom in Dubai in July 2017, marking its first in the Middle East.

Last month, Abu Dhabi said it would host the Mena region’s first conference focused on EVs from May 23 to May 25. The event is expected to attract important players in the EV market.

Developing an EV-friendly digital platform can play an important role in helping the UAE to achieve its net zero goals by 2050, Mubadala said.

The UAE is leading the change towards independent electric cars in the region and aims to have “about 42,000 electric cars on its streets by 2030”, said Ian Harfield, managing director of Engie Energy Solutions.

“This partnership with Mubadala is a commitment of our contribution to the UAE’s evolution towards green mobility,” he said.

“Sustainable mobility will emerge as one of the greatest challenges facing urban planners. Adoption of clean fuels and electrification of public and private transport systems will be key levers for reducing carbon emissions and pollutants in cities.”

Our agreement with Engie will support developing a digital platform for charging electric vehicles, and creating accessible, safe and sustainable mobility solutions to support the UAE’s climate action agenda

Badr Al Olama,
Mubadala’s executive director of UAE Investments

Separately, Mubadala said on Tuesday that it had invested in sales engagement platform Salesloft, alongside Vista Equity Partners.

Global investment company Vista, with more than $93 billion in assets under management, took a majority stake in Salesloft in December 2021. Mubadala participated in the transaction.

The deal, valued at $2.3bn, will help sellers and sales teams to generate more revenue.

“Salesloft offers … [a] platform for sales engagement and drives significant ROI [return on investment] for its customers by increasing the productivity of their sales processes; we are very excited to invest in their business alongside Vista,” said Ali Osman, head of Technology at Mubadala.

Founded in 2011, Salesloft has about 4,000 customers, including Alphabet’s Google, IBM and Microsoft’s LinkedIn.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Mubadala teams up with France’s Engie to develop electric vehicle charging platform in UAE

The two companies will also explore areas related to sustainable mobility in the Middle East

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