HIP, a fully owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), has agreed to form a joint venture with Hong Kong’s New World Development Company (NWD) to own three Hong Kong hotels.

ADIA’s stake is thought to be 50 per cent.

The sale is worth HK$18.5bn ($2.4bn), of which HK$10.1bn will be received by NWD.

The market value of the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, Renaissance Harbour View and Hyatt Regency TST hotels was HK$21.3bn as of 1 March, according to Reuters.

“This would mean ADIA has got in under the market price,” says Filippo Sona, head of hotels in the Middle East and North Africa for US-based Colliers International. “It has probably put in $1.2bn for a share that could be worth more than $1.3bn on resale of the assets.”

The sizeable Asian investment represents a change in direction for Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, as part of a wider trend among GCC investment funds.

Other recent ADIA acquisitions reported in the media include the Ecowest office in Paris for €477m ($534m) earlier in 2015, three Marriott Edition Hotels worth $815m in London, New York and Miami in 2014, and 31 Accor hotels in Australia for $743m in 2013.