Some senior executives leave Aabar: Report
Dubai, November 8, 2012
Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments, the top shareholder in Italian bank UniCredit, has lost its chief financial officer and another top executive, sources familiar with the matter said.
The move signals the state-owned firm, which recently divested its stake in German carmaker Daimler, may be scaling back an investment spree which has seen it take stakes in high-profile global companies since its inception in 2005, a Reuters report said.
Brandt Mowry, an executive with a dual role as both chief financial officer and chief investment officer, left Aabar in October, three sources said, speaking anonymously because the matter has not been made public.
General Counsel Alex Iapichino also left the company in September, one of the sources said. Another executive from the legal department left as well, the sources said, without providing her name.
Aabar is among state-owned sovereign entities in the wealthy emirate which include names such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), considered one of the world's largest, and Mubadala Development, a shareholder in private equity firm Carlyle and General Electric.
Aabar, which invested $1 billion in the initial public offering of commodities giant Glencore last year, did not respond to calls and an email seeking comment. Its parent, International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), also did not respond to requests for comment.
The sources were not aware if any replacements were planned for the executives who had left. A property unit of Aabar had been shedding expatriate jobs as its stepped up a policy of hiring United Arab Emirates (UAE) nationals, sources told Reuters in March.
Abu Dhabi government-owned IPIC is the majority shareholder in Aabar.
Mowry, who joined the firm in 2010 from a subsidiary of Virgin Group, was the go-to person for bankers and investment professionals pitching deals and investment ideas to the company, a second source said. Aabar owns about 38 percent of Virgin Galactic.
Mowry had previously worked at companies including Exxon Mobil Corp and PepsiCo Inc, according to Aabar's website. - Reuters
