Summer 2013

QATAR: Is Qatar taking on too much?

The country is set to spend billions on foreign aid, hotels and build-out for the World Cup. Orlando Crowcroft asks if Qatar can afford...

ISLAMIC ENDOWMENTS: The weight of tradition

Despite controlling billions of dollars of assets, Islamic endowments have not yet become clients of the asset management world. George Mitton finds out if...

MENA EXCHANGES: Exchanging data

Funds Global profiles the seven stock exchanges in the Mena region that are members of the World Federation of Exchanges The Middle East and North...

FINANCE & POLITICS: Trouble in North Africa

Good equity performance may mask deep political problems in Egypt, while tensions remain in Tunisia. Orlando Crowcroft reports. Two and a half years after Egypt...

OMAN: The view from Muscat

Oman is trying to improve conditions for local people by imposing minimum wages and workforce quotas, while dealing with dwindling energy resources. George Mitton...

DISCRETIONARY MANAGEMENT: Family affairs

With mutual funds in the region struggling to attract sales, many asset managers have turned to offering discretionary portfolio management to family offices. Martin...

INTERVIEW: Planting seeds

The man leading Qatar’s efforts to develop a financial industry is at work on more seeding deals of the kind that brought Barclays and...

DOHA ROUNDTABLE: Listening to Doha

Asset managers in the Qatari capital discuss the dangers of moral hazard, the prospect of privatisation and a profit squeeze on their managed accounts...

LEGAL EASE: Sun and wind power

Plans for renewable energy in the Middle East should provide considerable opportunities for private sector investment in the future, both in power generation facilities,...

FUNDS SURVEY: Stellar performance

Only seven funds in the Mena region contain more than $1 billion, yet performance of some equity products, especially in the UAE, has been...