As the article illustrates, sovereign wealth funds in a number of Gulf states are buying into wealth management, banking and investment firms, diversifying these jurisdictions' sources of revenue.

Lunate, the Abu Dhabi-based investment house overseeing $110 billion in assets, has initially invested $2 billion into hedge fund firm Brevan Howard, forming a platform to be domiciled in the Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Lunate manages assets for Abu Dhabi sovereign investor ADQ and others.

As part of the arrangement, Lunate will take a minority stake in Brevan Howard, it said in a statement. 

The new partnership will involve a suite of new funds that are exclusive to it. They will use Brevan Howard’s existing strategies and investment capabilities, including macro and digital assets, Lunate said in a statement. Brevan Howard has $34 billion in assets under management. 

Additional capital is expected to be raised over time from local and international investors, the statement continued. 

Brevan Howard, a firm operating for more than two decades, set up a regional headquarter office in ADGM in early 2023. It is the firm’s largest office by assets managed globally.

“Our new partnership with Brevan Howard marks our expansion into hedge funds and reflects our commitment to work with the best investment firms in the world, offering our clients access to unique strategies to further diversify their portfolios," Khalifa Al Suwaidi, managing partner at Lunate, said. 

Brevan Howard’s founder Alan Howard added: “The long-term partnership with Lunate reflects our deep and ongoing commitment to the region and we look forward to building on this foundation over time.”

Lunate is part of a business empire steered by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) national security advisor and brother of UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (source: Reuters, 26 August).

Acquisitions
The firm has taken stakes in the wealth sector. In early May, Lunate took a position in Monaco-headquartered wealth management house Azura Partners, for example. 

In October, Reuters quoted an executive of Brevan Howard who said that it does a significant amount of its crypto trading from the UAE because the country has "sensible regulations."

The move also sheds light on Abu Dhabi's aim to promote its credentials as a financial centre in the Middle East. In May, International Holding Co (IHC), a listed Abu Dhabi company, entered a $1 billion reinsurance venture with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. In February 2025, PATRIZIA, a German investment firm focused on property and infrastructure, obtained a licence in Abu Dhabi to arrange and advise on investments.

For years, sovereign wealth funds have been buying stakes in banks, wealth managers and investment houses in the Middle East. Here are a few examples:

-- Mubadala Investment Company in the UAE took a 68 per cent stake in US asset manager Fortress Investment Group in May 2024. In August, the sovereign wealth fund completed its take-private of the Toronto-listed CI Financial, a bank that had bought a raft of US wealth managers.

-- A private equity consortium, including a unit of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, acquired UK-based Hargreaves Lansdown in August 2024. The consortium includes CVC Capital Partners, Nordic Capital and Platinum Ivy, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.

-- In late November 2023, Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal's investment company Kingdom Holding said it had raised its ownership in Citigroup to 2.2 per cent after acquiring a stake in the bank from the prince worth about $450 million.
 
-- Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) also holds a stake in Bank of America. 

Such SWF involvement in owning Western financial institutions brings risks, however. In May 2023, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, which at one point had been Credit Suisse's second-largest investor, examined how to redress losses incurred by the bank's emergency takeover by UBS in March 2023. The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) sought legal advice on whether it had any claim against Swiss authorities. Credit Suisse was sold to UBS for a fraction of its market value.