Middle East Business
Alpha Dhabi doubles its private credit commitment to a billion dollars
By Staff Writer | 1 September 2026
The Abu Dhabi holding company takes 40 per cent of a lending joint venture that already carries 1.7 billion dollars across 45 companies.
Alpha Dhabi Holding, which is listed on the Abu Dhabi exchange, has doubled its capital commitment to the MICAD Credit joint venture to one billion dollars and raised its ownership interest from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. The revised partnership agreement was announced on 31 August 2026.
The venture is managed by Mubadala Capital and holds approximately 1.7 billion dollars of assets across 45 portfolio companies. Its mandate has been broadened: it previously ran direct lending in the United States and Europe, and it will now take in further private credit strategies available through the manager's existing relationships.
This expanded partnership with Mubadala Capital reflects our conviction in private credit as a strategic pillar of Alpha Dhabi's investment portfolio.
Hamad Salem Al Ameri, managing director and group chief executive of Alpha Dhabi Holding
What private credit is, in the terms a contractor meets it
Private credit is lending by funds rather than by banks. The borrower deals with a single lender or a small club, the loan is negotiated rather than syndicated, and it is not traded. For a mid-market borrower that means a faster decision and a covenant package written for the business, usually against a higher margin than a bank would charge.
Construction and materials businesses meet it in three places: acquisition finance when a group buys a specialist subcontractor, asset-backed lending against plant, and the refinancing of a business whose bank has withdrawn from the sector. It is not project finance, and it is rarely the money that builds a scheme, but it is increasingly the money that owns the companies that do.
1.7 billion dollars across 45 companies is an average exposure of about 38 million dollars a name. That is mid-market lending, not infrastructure finance.
Why the size of the step matters
Doubling a commitment and doubling a stake at the same time is a different signal from adding capital at a fixed shareholding. The holding company is taking a larger share of a platform it has already tested for two years, rather than buying into a new one, and it is doing so as the mandate widens beyond the two markets the venture was set up for.
The evolution of the joint venture reflects the strength of our approach to building high-quality investment platforms together with institutional partners.
Omar Eraiqat, president and chief investment officer for credit and solutions at Mubadala Capital
What has not been disclosed
No breakdown has been published of the 45 portfolio companies by sector or by geography, so nothing is said here about how much of the book touches construction. The additional strategies that the widened mandate admits have not been named, and no date has been given for when the increased commitment is drawn. None of that is inferred.