Emirates NBD Asset Management fund to focus on Saudi Arabia

30/01/2018 05:57 AST

Emirates NBD Asset Management has converted one of its three Middle East & North Africa (Mena) equities funds into a Saudi fund as it pushes to position its clients to participate in a rally to catch up with emerging market peers.

Last year, regional equity markets rose only a little over 5 per cent, lagging behind in terms of performance when compared to their emerging market peers, which gained more than 30 per cent.

Emirates NBD Asset Management expects Saudi equities to play a catch-up on the back of oil recovery and other fundamental factors such as its upgrade to an emerging market or the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of Aramco, which is touted as the world’s largest. “The only segment that lagged behind in the world [was] regional equities because we had [an] issue with oil price recovery and we had the geopolitical noise. What that resulted in [was that] global markets saw an all time high [while] regional markets [experienced a] massive lag. There is for sure a big catch-up trade there,” said Salman Bajwa, head of asset management at Emirates NBD Asset Management.

“On the ground we are getting positioned for a potential recovery there. We used to have a Mena-only equities funds. What we have done last year is we converted one of these funds into Saudi-only fund. That’s the one we would like to get our investors into. We are starting to have our conversations with our clients. We are getting positive feedback,” he added.

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