The Abu Dhabi Investment Council prefers to be known as “the Council” rather than by the acronym of its subsidiary, the Abu Dhabi Investment Company. And if there were any doubts that the Council would have the heft to dictate its own nickname, it put them to rest this month when news broke that it had purchased a substantial stake in Manhattan’s iconic Chrysler Building.

The Council’s sudden interest in New York property raised almost as many eyebrows in Abu Dhabi as it did in New York. When the Council was created by a new law in 2006, many people concluded that it was intended to relieve Adia of its domestic and regional portfolio – a portfolio that, for reasons described above, Adia was not so excited about anyway.

That is not how the Council sees it, however. It may be much smaller than Adia, but it clearly has big ambitions. “The Council is responsible for investing part of Abu Dhabi Government’s surplus financial resources through a globally diversified investment strategy targeting positive capital returns through an expansive portfolio comprising highly diversified asset classes and active investment management strategies,” the Council wrote in response to queries about its role. This mission statement does not clearly distinguish it from Adia.

But according to media reports at the time the law creating the Council was promulgated, it is not only mandated to carry out investments inside the emirate that were previously made by Adia, but to invest at home and abroad, and even to lay down investment policies.

Whether the Council’s foray into Manhattan will sit well with Americans or whether it will become the modern-day equivalent of Mitsubishi’s purchase of the Rockefeller Center 19 years ago – a lightning rod for American economic xenophobia – remains to be seen.

“The thing that surprised me about it is that is that it’s a very high-profile building,” said Mr Seville at Fitch. “I don’t know why they’d want to attract that kind of attention.” *thenational.ae

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