Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala has agreed to invest an initial £800 million ($1.1 billion) in UK life sciences over a five-year period as part of the first focus of the UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership (SIP).
The long-term investment agreement was signed with the Department for International Trade and the Prime Minister’s Office’s recently-established UK Office for Investment (OfI) and is expected to build on existing UK-UAE trade and investment ties that were worth £32bn ($43.9bn) in 2019.
Mubadala’s commitment will be added to the UK’s £200m ($274m) Life Sciences Investment Programme announced last year, which will enable more UK life sciences businesses to scale and grow.
Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, managing director and group CEO of Mubadala, said: “The UAE and UK are aligned on the importance of global action on critical priorities such as healthcare innovation and delivery, climate change and the sustainable growth of high-skilled industries.
“Coordination on investment and global innovation ecosystems is vital to enabling progress against these challenges and presents a significant post-Covid economic opportunity for the UK and UAE.
“Mubadala is already a long-term investor in UK innovation and growth, and our new partnership now provides a platform to allocate stable capital to priority sectors as part of a future-focused investment relationship.”
According to a statement released on Wednesday, the Ofl and Mubadala “will work together to identify commercially viable opportunities for investment into the sector”.
The industry, which generates £80bn ($109.7bn) turnover a year within the UK and employs more than 250,000 people, is expected to benefit from stronger links in life sciences research, education and closer ties between the UAE and UK.
UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said: “The UAE is an important trading partner for the UK and home to some of the world’s largest and most experienced investment companies. It’s fantastic that we are collaborating more closely in the industries of tomorrow like science, tech and green growth, so we can build back better and deliver an investment-led, jobs-led recovery from coronavirus.”
Over a five-year period, the SIP will invest across several tech and innovation-led sectors such as energy transition and infrastructure that will support job creation in both nations, strengthen national research and development capabilities and develop new areas of investment collaboration.
Mubadala will also connect UK industries to research and innovation initiatives across its global portfolio spanning more than 50 countries, which has a major focus on innovation and technology-led sectors, including composite manufacturing, semiconductors, renewable energy, biotech and urban mobility.
The SIP’s inaugural life sciences investments are expected to complete later this year.
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