Mars Development & Investment

Mars Development & Investment

Mars Development & Investment was established in 2017 as a state-backed investment company headquartered in Muscat. The firm operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oman Investment Authority (OIA), placing it at the center of the Sultanate's efforts to diversify national reserves beyond hydrocarbons. CEO Said Mohamed Said Al Aufi, who concurrently chairs Sohar International Bank, runs the day-to-day investment operations. MDI's deployment spans commercial real estate, industrial warehousing, and fund commitments with a cross-border tilt. The firm holds the Sama Building in Muscat and a Barka warehouse, reflecting a direct real-asset strategy inside Oman. On the fund side, MDI co-sponsors the Jabal ChinaAMC Loong Equity Fund — a vehicle structured with CITIC Securities and China Asset Management Co. to access Chinese public and private equities — and the Jabal India Fund, which targets Indian growth-stage opportunities. The firm shares its leadership with Oman's broader financial infrastructure. Chairman Al Aufi's dual role at Sohar International Bank creates an informal bridge between state-directed investment and the domestic banking sector. MDI's parent, OIA, managed roughly $41.5 billion in assets as of 2023 (per Global SWF, 2023), making the subsidiary a conduit for a fraction of that capital into direct and co-sponsored investments. MDI's structural differentiator is its embedded mandate within a sovereign fund. Rather than operating as an independent asset manager, the firm functions as an extension of OIA's domestic development agenda — deploying state capital directly into Omani real estate while syndicating cross-border fund commitments through state-to-state partnerships, particularly with Chinese financial institutions.