Abu Dhabi’s ADIA teams up with private investment firm on real estate secondaries push
It will focus on opportunities characterised by a reset in valuations and increased demand for liquidity
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[DUBAI] A unit of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is partnering with international private investment firm Ardian to launch a real estate secondaries platform.
This underscores how Gulf sovereign investors are pressing ahead with global dealmaking, despite heightened geopolitical tensions following the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The new platform will focus on opportunities in the current market environment, characterised by a reset in valuations and increased demand for liquidity, Ardian said on Tuesday (Mar 10).
It said that transaction volumes in real estate secondaries – where investors buy stakes in existing property funds or portfolios from other investors seeking liquidity – reached a record US$20 billion in 2025.
Vladimir Colas, executive vice-president and co-head of secondaries at Ardian, said: “We have been closely studying the market for some time, and believe now is a compelling moment to enter the market and drive significant value for our investors.”
Mohamed Al Qubaisi, executive director of the real estate department at ADIA, said that the new platform reflects confidence in both the growth of the real estate secondaries market and the partnership between the two groups.
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ADIA is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, overseeing more than US$1 trillion in assets.
Besides its ties with ADIA, Ardian also has partnerships with Mubadala Investment on private asset investments, and opened an office in Abu Dhabi in 2023.
The move also highlights how Middle Eastern investors are attempting to move forward on business plans, even as Iran has struck countries across the Gulf.
On Monday, Judan, a newly established US$237 billion financial services holding company in Abu Dhabi, agreed to buy a majority stake in Alpha Wave Global, which holds investments in technology groups including SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI.
This followed deals by Qatar’s wealth fund and a Bahraini aluminium firm in the week of Mar 2.
Founded in 1996, Ardian invests across private equity, real assets and private credit, and operates about 20 offices worldwide.
The firm manages or advises about US$200 billion globally and is one of the world’s largest investors in the secondaries market, having raised a record US$30 billion for a secondaries fund in 2025.
Once considered niche, secondaries have expanded rapidly in recent years.
ADIA has been recalibrating its private equity strategy to capture that growth, while Abu Dhabi Investment Council – an independently run unit of Mubadala – plans to deploy as much as US$10 billion over the next three years.
Global asset managers have been expanding their presence in the Gulf in recent years, drawn by the region’s sovereign wealth funds and wealthy families that together control trillions of dollars in capital. BLOOMBERG
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