Читать книгу The Hunt for Unicorns - Winston Ma - Страница 31

Passing through the understory of lounge chairs and low tables, you approach the bar with a view of televisions carrying the major international news channels. The suited barista serves up the coffee of your choice and you relax briefly as you scan your emails on the free wifi, glance at a few of the international papers and periodicals, and recover from the constant bustle just outside the lounge – business professionals from a multitude of lands clearing security and taking elevators from the towering atrium.

No, you are not in the first-class lounge at an international hub airport (although it might well be one from all appearances). You have arrived, instead, at the visitor lounge in the hometown high-rise offices of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world's largest and lowest profile sovereign wealth funds. ADIA manages its vast $700 billion plus global portfolio from this edifice where it employs investment professionals from around the world in a gleaming glass tower that would not look out of place in any world city. And ADIA is but one of the growing number of large sovereign wealth funds that remain below the radar but have an increasing impact on global markets.

Their low profile is in contrast to the better known dealmakers in the centers of finance. But their checkbooks and influence on the world at large outweigh the erstwhile titans of finance.

And as the number and size of such operations continue to surge, their influence does as well. Large as they are, in crises they have an even larger role to play. As this book went to press, the world was facing a pandemic, an inflection point where two themes of this book converged in sharp relief: the power of these massive funds in times of crisis and the world's now urgent march to the digital economy.