ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company made a first half group profit of 10.9 billion dirhams ($2.97 billion), boosted by the sale of part of its stake in BP and the solid performance of other stocks in its portfolio.

The company did not provide a comparative profit figure for the same period last year as Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) was merged with Mubadala in March this year.

Unlisted Mubadala, which has stakes in General Electric and private equity firm Carlyle Group announced a net profit of 4.2 billion dirhams for the first half of 2017. Total assets of Mubadala, including consolidated ADIC holdings, were 832 billion dirhams for the period ending June 30, Mubadala said in a statement on Thursday.

Mubadala continued to invest in new sectors and geographies in the first half of this year, Khaldoon Khalifa al-Mubarak, group chief executive and managing director, said in the statement. “We also monetised select assets at good valuations, to deliver financial returns. And, the decision to bring the Abu Dhabi Investment Council into the Mubadala Group has increased the scale and breadth of our portfolio.”

The company made over 1 billion dirhams from the sale of some of its stake in BP BP.L . A jump in the stock prices of some companies, such as AMD where Mubadala holds a stake, also helped boost profit.

This week Mubadala announced it was selling a 25 percent stake in Spanish energy company Cepsa in an initial public offering on the Spanish stock exchange in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Mubadala, which has committed $15 billion to the Softbank Vision Fund, plans to launch a $400 million fund to invest in leading European technology companies.

($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirham)

($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirham)

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; Editing by Tom Arnold and Kirsten Donovan) ((stanley.carvalho@thomsonreuters.com; + 9712 6444431; Reuters Messaging: stanley.carvalho.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))