Abu Dhabi Becomes ‘Daily Davos’ As Asset Managers Seek Cash

Residential and commercial skyscrapers on the skyline of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Sunday, April 10, 2022. Abu Dhabi regulators approved a framework for special purpose acquisition companies, looking to capture some of the blank-check boom that has gripped global markets for the past two years.

(Bloomberg) -- Some of the world's top alternative asset managers have been flooding the Middle East in search of cash — and they're not stopping at state money, according to one family office executive in the region.

A number of these firms have widened the scope of potential investors to include family offices, according to Amine Bouchentouf, the chief investment officer of Atlas Holdings, an Abu Dhabi-based family office that invests in global alternative asset managers.

“Ten years ago we used to meet one good manager every four weeks,” Bouchentouf said in an interview. “Now we meet four great managers almost daily. It's becoming like a daily Davos.”

Those names include billionaires such as Trian Fund Management's Nelson Peltz, Brevan Howard Asset Management founder Alan Howard, Guggenheim Partners chairman Alan Schwartz and TCI Fund's Chris Hohn, according to Bouchentouf.

Guggenheim and Brevan Howard declined to comment. Trian and TCI didn't respond to requests for comment.

Some alternative asset managers are increasing their fund sizes to cater to investors in the region, who have to write bigger checks for their investments to have an impact, said Bouchentouf, whose office opened in Abu Dhabi in 2009.

Read More: Abu Dhabi Is the World's Newest Wealth Haven for Billionaires

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth funds oversee about $1.5 trillion, and it continues to attract international money. Investors such as Howard, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio and Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris have moved their family offices or set up outposts in the emirate's international financial free zone, a jurisdiction that's distinct from the onshore legal system in the United Arab Emirates and has its own laws. Brevan Howard, which manages more than $35 billion of assets, has about 60 people working out of its office in Abu Dhabi, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Read more: Billionaire Howard Pitches Abu Dhabi as Global Financial Hub

The city's financial center became a global hub because “it's a reliable market” that provides ample long-term capital, Bouchentouf said, calling it “transformational for their businesses.”

Atlas has committed capital to Brazilian investment firm Gavea Investimentos in recent years and has been backing US bottled coffee brand Super Coffee for about five years throughout multiple funding rounds, according to Bouchentouf, who declined to disclose Atlas's assets under management.

Read More: Egypt's Richest Man Joins Billionaire Migration to Abu Dhabi

Among other deals Atlas has participated in over the years is Michael Dell's acquisition of VMware parent EMC in 2016, which was led by MSD Capital and Silver Lake Management.

--With assistance from Nishant Kumar.

(Updates with Brevan Howard details in seventh paragraph.)

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