The CEO of NATIXIS, a global Asset Management Company with $1,008 billion in assets under its management, described the UAE as an “attractive” investment haven.
“The UAE for us is an attractive place, no doubt. It is classified as an emerging market. You have stability and you have a long term view of economic development,” Jean Raby, a dual Canadian and French citizen, told the Emirates News Agency, WAM, on the sidelines of the Bloomberg Invest Abu Dhabi which was held in the UAE capital today.
“The UAE has significant investment opportunities, not only in this region, but also in other parts of the world, thanks to your strong connectivity, notably with Africa. So I’m quite positive about this region, where the challenge for us is to move from a situation where we are partners with sovereign wealth funds to eventually be an asset manager on our own right in the region.”
Raby dismissed bearish signals forecasting recession may be fast approaching. “The global economic environment is getting into a period where we are, by consensus I’d say, in the late cycle of a long economic expansion. We are not seeing a recession on the horizon.
“We’re probably seeing a kind of synchronised slowdown as much as we’re seeing last year of a synchronised acceleration. Now we are more in a synchronised slowdown. That’s being said, we have to recognise we continue to be in a very benign environment both in US, in Europe and even in Asia,” added the CEO of the second biggest French manager by market share.
He accentuated his positive outlook for the upcoming period. “We remain constructive toward the environment. And from a financial perspective, I can safely say that we have had a rapid rebound in the financial market in the first quarter of this year. I’d say that from now until the end of the year, we expect returns to remain positive and will continue to be so for the rest of the year; but probably more muted than the significant advances we have seen since the beginning of the year.”
Bloomberg Invest Abu Dhabi today convened financial leaders, regulators, economists, and innovators to unpack the most significant opportunities and risks facing investors navigating geopolitical turbulence and volatile markets. The summit tackled regional and global issues, from diversified investing in the Middle East to the next frontier for the oil sector and opportunities in digitisation, AI and cyber security.
The invitation-only event was attended by CEOs, CIOs and founders of leading asset managers, private equity firms, hedge funds, banks, energy companies and government ministers. The summit featured regional and global market leaders, and senior business executives driving the financial decisions that matter the most in today’s world. These included: Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Industry; Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister of State and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Global Market; Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Deputy Group CEO and CEO, Alternative Investments & Infrastructure, Mubadala Investment Company; Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive Officer, Aberdeen Standard Investments; Eng. Talal Ibrahim Al Maiman, Chief Executive Officer, Kingdom Holding Company; Rola Abu Manneh, CEO UAE, Standard Chartered Bank and others.
The day’s discussions were led by several of Bloomberg’s editorial team including: John Micklethwait, Nour Al Ali, Manus Cranny, Claudia Maedler, Matthew Martin, Riad Hamade and Erik Schatzker.
