As mentioned in some of my recent posts, I spent the last few months talking to over 100 leading global institutions and professional fund buyers to determine how the financial crisis impacted their organizations, asset allocation approaches and outlook.

The top priority for the majority of them in 2010: transparency – followed by liquidity, safety and performance. Not surprising, but here is how it is changing the industry.

Back to basics and an independent brand were the key ingredients to gathering net cash flows last year, while media themes such as ‘newcits’ were and are perceived as naive (with negligible flows thus far).

Enter the other time consuming project early this year, an in-depth Middle East study.

One of the most coveted pots of wealth in recent years has been the multi-trillion sovereign wealth fund industry. They are sophisticated, international, ambitious and… transparent? Not quite, but the largest of them this week took a big step out of the black box by publishing its first ever annual review.

Welcome to the new and improved ADIA.

Until recently, akin to Monsieur Paulson (John, not Hank) and company, one could only find a name, address and general phone number on ADIA’s website. The fund in 35 years literally only gave a handful of interviews, but things turned around in 2008, when MD HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Zayed Al-Nehayan opened his doors to Businessweek, published an open editorial with Henry Paulson and Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and adopted the Santiago Principles and IMF guidelines. He also hired internationally, including Jean-Paul Villain (former CEO for BNP Paribas AM), Cyrille Urfer (Head of fund selection for LODH), or Chris Koski (Canadian Pension Plan).

Fast forward to 2010. The Sheikh gives a detailed interview to the German Handelsblatt, launches a sleek new website and publishes its first-ever annual report.

Some of the key points from the report include:

– 36% of the 1,200 employees are from Asia (speaking of building strategic links), compared to 31% from the UAE and 12% from Europe. Overall, 40 nationalities are represented.

– 80% of assets are managed externally; but 60% of assets are invested in index-replicating strategies.

– In USD terms, the 30-year annualized rate of return is 8%.

– The Strategy Unit drives the risk parameters and asset allocation, leading to a portfolio that contains more than two dozen asset classes and sub-categories, each with a fixed weighting, which together form ADIA’s shared, long-term view of the world, or “neutral benchmark.”

– The neutral benchmark includes 35%-45% in developed equities and 10%-20% in emerging equities, followed by 10%-20% in government bonds.

– To enhance returns, this may include occasional “off-benchmark” opportunistic investments.

– ADIA does not invest in the UAE.

External fund selection follows the “4 Ps Framework”: Philosophy > Process > People > Performance. Not surprisingly, the process mirrors what is used in Europe and the US.

Transparency 2010: different markets, multiple segments, similar principles, same lessons.

… and big opportunities.

Welcome to the global asset management industry of the 21st century – information is ubiquitous, knowledge is scarce.