ADIC appoints first CIO(2)

Anders Ljungqvist has joined the Abu Dhabi Investment Company (ADIC) as the firm’s first ever chief investment officer.

Ljungqvist joins  from Volvo, where for the last three years he was the car manufacturer’s director of corporate finance. Prior to that he held roles as head of asset management and fixed income and head of treasury in the Americas at the Volvo Group.

Ljungqvist will look after ADIC’s proprietary investments, which will now sit under separate management to its expanding third party fund management business, although there will be some co-investment.

ADIC has simultaneously appointed 10-year Goldman Sachs veteran Thierry Gimonnet as head of finance.

Sources close to ADIC say the firm is concentrating efforts this year on growing its nascent third party fund management business focused on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The decision to move away from its original model, with the Abu Dhabi government as the firm’s sole financial sponsor, was illustrated in February 2008 when ADIC launched a $500 million, MENA-focused infrastructure fund alongside UBS Global Asset Management. 

In January, Robert Wages, ADIC’S private equity chief, left the firm abruptly after two years to “pursue other opportunities”.  Serkan Kizil stepped in as interim head of private equity. A spokesman for the firm said a permanent replacement would be announced “in due course”.