The shareholders of Aabar Investments’ have approved the conversion of the fund into a private joint-stock company and subsequent delisting from the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

The delisting is set to take place on 1 September and would make Aabar the first local firm to delist from the ADX.

Share capital for the new company was set at AED4.04 billion ($1.10bn), with a nominal value of one dirham per share, Aabar said in a statement posted on the ADX on 16 August.

The Abu Dhabi fund first announced that it was considering delisting from the ADX on 22 June. The exchange’s General Index has declined by 6.9 per cent this year.

Aabar suffered a AED1.38bn loss in its second-quarter earnings on the back of a surge in derivatives liabilities, but made a net profit of AED202m for the first half of the year.

It bought a 4.99 per cent stake in UniCredit on 27 June, Italy’s largest bank by market capitalisation, for AED8.44bn.

Aabar owns 9.1 per cent of German car maker Daimler, making it the largest shareholder, as well as a 32 per cent stake in Richard Branson’s commercial space travel company Virgin Galactic.

The fund’s assets currently stand at around $10bn.