(Bloomberg) — Abu Dhabi’s largest asset management fund has hired the financial chief of a JD.com Inc. subsidiary to oversee private equity investments in China, as the United Arab Emirates expands investments in emerging markets.
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Hugo Hu, a former chief financial officer at JD.com, has been hired as China head of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s private equity unit, a spokesman for the fund said in response to inquiries from Bloomberg News.
A representative for JD.com declined to comment.
Hu joined JD Group, China’s leading e-commerce platform, in 2021 as head of strategic investment, and later became CFO of JD Holdings in December 2022.
His departure from JD.com comes at a time when a subsidiary of JD.com Inc. is seeking a Hong Kong listing. Before joining JD, he worked at Warburg Pincus for nearly 10 years.
ADIA, which manages nearly $1 trillion in assets, is pouring more of its capital into private equity, while companies and funds from the UAE, of which Abu Dhabi is a member, are forging closer ties with China and India, signing billions of dollars’ worth of deals to boost investment and trade ties.
The Gulf state recently joined the BRICS group of major emerging markets that includes these two Asian countries.
ADIA is chaired by Sheikh Thanoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a Emirati royal who oversees an empire that includes artificial intelligence company G42. Hu’s predecessor at JD Group was tapped by G42’s $10 billion tech fund, 42X, to head its Shanghai office, Bloomberg News previously reported.
–With assistance from Sarah Zheng and Edwin Chan.
(Adds details to lead paragraph 6)
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