Markaz, lead sponsor for Euromoney Kuwait conference

The conference will examine the new investment stories, the impact of the global economic conditions on the Gulf state's development, and how Kuwait's non-oil economy is coming out of the shadow of the world's 5th largest oil reserves.

Markaz will conduct a workshop about the attractive investment opportunities in distressed assets, real estate, oil and gas, and fixed income. The workshop will be managed by Mr. Ali Khalil, Executive Vice President of Markaz, and involves Markaz sector specialists.

Markaz has adopted an opportunistic strategy since the beginning of the financial crisis, which is based on acquiring attractive assets at low valuations, a classic golden rule of investments proved to be effective. Hence, Markaz structured and launched various investment products, covering different asset classes to take advantage of the current state of distorted valuations.

Mariam Al Suwailem, Senior Officer -Media & Communications at Markaz said, "We enjoy a long strong partnership with Euromoney and participated in several Euromoney conferences either by sponsoring, or speaking, or attending. We recently sponsored their Middle East Investment conference which was held in London end of 2008, and were pleased with its successful outcome and impressive audience."

Al Suwailem added, "We also aim to encourage sophisticated international institutions to highlight the role of the GCC economies in the global financial scene."

Kuwait Financial Centre S.A.K. 'Markaz', with total assets under management of over KD880m as of December 31, 2008, was established in 1974 has become one of the leading asset management and investment banking institutions in the Arabian Gulf Region. Markaz was listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) in 1997; and was recently awarded a BBB+ corporate rating by Capital Intelligence Ltd.