Company is bullish on hydrogen and its potential to meet energy demand

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company is aiming to expand and strengthen its existing businesses in the UAE and create new national champions, one of the company's top executives said.

“We are taking a view and strategic initiative to focus or refocus into the UAE economy, build or expand and strengthen the existing businesses we have and create champions,” Musabbeh Al-Kaabi, chief executive of UAE investments at Mubadala, told the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum 2021 on Tuesday evening.

Mubadala has investments in a number of companies in the UAE including clean energy company Masdar, Emirates Global Aluminium, chemicals company Borealis and aviation manufacturing company Strata, among others.

It also took a minority stake in a local artificial intelligence and cloud computing company Group 42 after transferring ownership of two information technology companies it owns – Injazat and Khazna Data Centres – to the business in November last year.

“We have the right ecosystem, we have the right partnerships globally and we are confident that we will push the economic diversification [of the UAE’s economy] going forward,” Mr Al Kaabi told the forum, which is taking place online due to Covid-19.

Mubadala is bullish on the prospects for hydrogen and earlier this week signed a preliminary agreement with Siemens to explore investment and commercial opportunities in clean energy and green hydrogen, which includes potentially setting up a demonstrator plant at Masdar City.

“From now till 2050, energy demand will double. We maintain our view that all sources of energy will be required and we identified hydrogen as one emerging energy source that would definitely help in meeting the energy demand in the future and addressing climate change,” he said.

The company also formed an alliance with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and industrial holding company ADQ to produce hydrogen from natural gas and renewable energy, with a view to producing locally and selling the fuel both in the UAE and overseas.

With a $232 billion portfolio spanning five continents, Mubadala has interests in a range of sectors from aerospace and healthcare to real estate, technology, utilities and oil and gas.

Earlier this month, Mubadala integrated its UAE healthcare assets into a single unit.

Mr Al Kaabi said the company 'will play a constructive role in ensuring that our investments are in high compliance with ESG [environmental, social and corporate governance] requirements'.

'We are currently running an exercise to identify our carbon footprint and putting the right measures in place to ensure our role going forward,' he said.

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