The Gulf Co-operation Council countries-UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar-are home to the world’s four largest sovereign wealth funds whose estimated assets are worth over $ 1.6tn. Yet, the regional asset management industry is relatively small with around $ 50bn in assets under management, according to a survey on investor trends in the Gulf Co-operation Council countries by Dubai-based Insight Discovery.
“At a time that growth in asset pools in much of Europe and North America is being constrained by the volatility of financial markets, sluggish economies, unfavorable demographics or other challenges, the relative importance of the GCC and Mena countries is increasing,” said Nigel Sillitoe, chief executive of Insight Discovery. Assets under management in the Middle East and South Africa combined increased, above the global average, by 10% in 2010, compared to 13% in the previous year, according to figures from the Boston Consulting Group.
Sovereign wealth funds traditionally invest more in developed markets, rather than locally, Sillitoe said.
Respondents to the Insight Discovery survey say they are less worried by political upheavals in the region, but more about the ongoing changes and the lack of clarity of the regulatory environment.
“The Middle East is a little behind in terms of regulation but there is now a catch-up,” Sillitoe said. The political unrest sweeping the broader region masks the fact that investment risks vary from one country to another and that the political and economic actors in the region are more comfortable with a level of risk that appears high from a Western perspective.
Currently, each GCC member has its own set of compliance rules, making it more costly and complicated for fund managers to sell products on a regional level.
“Hopefully common sense in time will prevail, it seems Qatar and the UAE are at the forefront of bringing new rules for asset management companies,” Sillitoe said.
Regional financial centers such as Doha and Dubai are competing with one another and that could spur better regulations which are likely to appear within three years in one or several countries, the survey said.
International asset management and life insurance companies already operate in the GCC, and the wider Middle East, as the region’s account surpluses are boosting capital pools. Franklin Templeton and JP Morgan Asset Management are most active, but a growing number of advisers are working with BlackRock, Invesco, HSBC Global Asset Management, Fidelity, Schroders, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Aberdeen, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, PIMCO and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
