ADIA hires new head of principal investments

He will report to Hareb Al Darmaki, executive director of ADIA's private equities department.

Lanigan joins from Tara Capital, a boutique advisory firm he set up in 2005. Prior to this he was a partner at Caxton-Iseman Capital, the PE affiliate of hedge fund Caxton Associates, and also worked in the leveraged finance unit at Credit Suisse, advising private equity and hedge funds on capital raising and investments.

"Colm is a highly experienced private equity investor, with a proven track record across the industry, including in the emerging markets space," Ad Darmaki said in a statement. "He will play an important role in managing our portfolio of existing principal investments, while further developing our strategy in this area."

ADIA started investing in private equity in 1989. According to its latest portfolio review, 2-8% of total assets are in private equity - which means $12.5-50 billion, based on the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute's estimate that ADIA is worth $627 billion. It is said to want to increase exposure to the asset class, particularly in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Australia.

Earlier this year ADIA poached Axa Private Equity COO Christophe Florin to head up its emerging markets private equity team. Last December it recruited Benjamin Weston, CEO of Helvetica Wealth Management Partners, as global head of alternative investments. A year earlier, James Kester arrived from Zurich Alternative Asset Management as CIO for private equity, replacing George Sudarskis.

In Asia specifically, ADIA is reportedly looking to make direct investments in Indian real estate rather than operating through third-party fund managers.

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