UPDATE 1-Abu Dhabi's Mubadala eyes U.S. real estate firm

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By Stanley Carvalho

ABU DHABI, March 30 (Reuters) - Mubadala Development Co, an Abu Dhabi investment vehicle that manages over $10 billion of assets, said on Sunday it is in talks to buy a stake in a U.S. real estate firm with which it will develop regional projects.

Mubadala, whose global shareholdings including a 7.5 percent stake in the Carlyle Group [CYL.UL], could buy a stake in Chicago-based The John Buck Co, its chief financial officer Carlos Obeid said in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.

Earlier on Sunday, Mubadala said it had set up a real estate firm with John Buck to build projects in Abu Dhabi, which controls the world's fifth-largest oil reserves, and across the Middle East.

"We are in discussions with The John Buck Co to take a stake in the company," Obeid told a news conference, without giving further details.

Mubadala is the latest state investment agency and sovereign wealth fund (SWF) to buy stakes in Western firms, many ailing from the fallout of a subprime mortgage market crisis in the United States.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, regarded as the world's largest SWF, last year agreed to buy $7.5 billion of stock in Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which could write down about $12 billion in the first quarter, Goldman Sachs said last month.

Regional investors have also been interested in U.S. real estate.