(March 24): Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd’s US$54 billion (RM239.52 billion) asset management holding company is opening an office in Abu Dhabi, joining a flurry of financial firms that have recently set up in the oil-rich emirate.

The firm, known as Seviora, will be based in the city’s financial hub, ADGM. “The new office, coupled with Seviora’s existing offices in Singapore, India, China and Indonesia, will contribute to the expansion of the company in Asia and beyond,” it said in a statement on Monday.

Seviora named Sadiq Hussain as its senior executive officer for the office, its first in the Middle East. The move comes months after Mubadala Capital, a unit of the US$330 billion Abu Dhabi wealth fund, and Seviora signed a memorandum of understanding for a partnership aimed at co-investments and other opportunities.

Abu Dhabi, which is home to three main wealth funds that oversee close to US$1.7 trillion in assets, is competing with Dubai and Riyadh to be the Middle East’s main business hub. The city has lured financial heavyweights like BlackRock Inc, which received a commercial licence last year.

Neighbouring countries like Kuwait and Qatar have also recently started wooing foreign firms.

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