Premier hedge fund event opens in Dubai

Conference chairman Antoine Massad, associate director, Middle East and Asia at Man Investments, said in his opening address that the hedge fund industry is on the brink of consolidation as it moves into the mainstream of investing.

The event, the sixth annual Hedge Funds World Middle East conference, is the Middle East's premier event for alternative investments strategies, attracting approximately 500 participants, including senior regulators and high-level executives from all sectors of the financial services industry.

More than 40 leading industry professionals will talk on a wide range of topics relating to the future of the hedge fund industry, including Mohamed Seif EI Nasr, deputy treasurer of The Saudi National Commercial Bank (Bahrain) and Dr Christoph Moeller, head of global sales and marketing at Man Investments.

Among the other luminaries speaking at the conference are Pradeep Mehra, vice president of managed funds at the Arab Banking Corporation (Bahrain), Dr Marcel Giacometti, the president and founder of Auda Advisor Associates LLC (New York) and Sheik Mohamed Alkhalifa, the director of finance and investments at the General Organisation for Social Insurance (Bahrain).

Man Investments' Massad opened the event with a speech exploring the future development of the industry, particularly in the Middle East, where he expects to see continued growth in industry assets on the back of strong demand from Arab institutions.

He said, 'The alternative investment industry is at the point of making the transition from a boom industry to becoming a mainstay of the asset management industry. The next five years will bring greater regulation, consolidation, standardisation of IT and reporting, and increasing regionalisation of products. Hedge fund providers will have to adapt to this new environment and only those who have the capacity to invest in research and product development and in exploring new markets and opportunities will survive this transformation.'

'In the Middle East, we expect Arab investors will increase their allocation to hedge funds to 8%-10% of assets within the next decade. This is in line with developments in the US, the most developed hedge fund market in the world. The bulk of this new investment will be through third parties such as funds of hedge funds, as investors outsource investment selection and product management.'

'In this environment, funds of hedge funds will differentiate themselves through their ability to deliver innovative product structures and access premier investment capacity. This will clearly favour the established industry players, who have the resources and presence within the industry to source the best personnel, investments, technology and to invest in research and product development.'