Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) is targeting some of the world’s biggest hedge funds to attract them to set up offices in the emirate. It is reportedly in talks with 50 international hedge funds and is offering to reduce capital requirements and licensing fees. According to Bloomberg, the hedge funds include Millennium Management and ExodusPoint Capital Management, two large US-based firms. “One space that has been growing very fast is the hedge fund sector,” said DIFC governor Essa Kazim, “The backlog for that industry is big, and it’s growing, and it’s one of the sources of our growth actually,” he added. The recruitment effort comes on the back of a record-breaking year for the emirate’s international financial hub, in which its revenue topped AED1 billion (US$272 million) for the first time in 2022. It also saw a 20% increase in the number of actively registered companies to 1,084, surpassing the 1,000 companies for the first time. Meanwhile, operating profit grew by 19% to $189 million. According to a DIFC statement, the growth reflects the “growing demand for a supportive ecosystem from global businesses looking to scale into emerging economies with high-growth financial services markets”. ©2023 funds global mena