Abu Dhabi's Adia invests in food industry fund McWin and China's Taibang Biologic

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the emirate's sovereign wealth fund, has led funding rounds by European restaurant investment firm McWin and China's biopharmaceutical company Taibang Biologic Group. Adia is the primary limited partner for McWin Restaurant Fund, which has secured initial funding commitments of €500 million ($512m) to invest in restaurants, the private investment company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The fund is launched by food industry investors Henry McGovern and Steven Winegar, who have backed brands including Italian restaurant chain Vapiano and UK-based bakeries Gail's. The deal brings the total capital managed by McWin, which oversees a €250m FoodTech fund and a food ecosystem fund that will close in the third quarter at €300m, to more than €1 billion.

The Adia-backed McWin Restaurant Fund will focus on larger investments with a ticket size of at least €100m, according to the statement. "We view the partnership with Adia as a long-term strategic relationship to unlock sustainable long-term value across the hospitality sector," Henry McGovern, co-founder of McWin, said.

"Our operating experience and hands-on approach is the perfect value proposition for national brands that want access to a Europe-wide platform to scale their operations and grow beyond their borders.”

Established in 1976, Adia, which invests on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government, makes direct and indirect investments across asset classes including equities, fixed income, infrastructure, private equity and real estate.

Adia subsidiary Platinum Orchid, along with Singapore's sovereign wealth investment fund GIC, also led a fund-raising round by China's Taibang Biologic Group. The biopharmaceuticals company raised $$300m ($216.5m) from a group of investors that also included state-owned China Life Private Equity Investment ad Cinda Kunpeng (Shenzhen) Investment Management Company.

Taibang Biologic manufactures and sells plasma-derived products and other biopharmaceuticals, according to its website. Founded in 2002, the company was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in 2009 before completing its approximately $4.8bn privatisation in April 2021.

Proceeds from the Adia-backed financing round will help to optimise the group’s capital structure, solidify its position in the domestic market, expand its plasma stations and grow the research and development of new products, Taibang Biologic said.

This will allow the group to achieve "more rapid and sustainable growth" in the Chinese market, the statement said. The latest funding round is Taibang Biologic's first equity financing deal since the completion of its privatisation last year by a consortium led by Chinese private equity firm Centurium Capital.

Last year, Adia, one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds, said it is well-placed to capitalise on future investment opportunities after successfully navigating Covid-19 pandemic-driven headwinds.

Adia's 30-year annualised rate of return at the end of 2020 reached 7.2 per cent on a point-to-point basis, compared with 6.6 per cent in 2019, according to its 2020 annual report. Its 20-year annualised rate of return climbed to 6 per cent, from 4.8 per cent in 2019.