Multi-manager investment company ACPI has revealed it is monitoring the Mena region with a medium-term view, despite concerns about political risk, Mena FM has learned.
The firm is looking to invest in emerging market long-only asset classes, but partner Luigi Bellini admitted that the independent asset management company, which has AUM of $3.5bn, is currently holding fire on investment on the Mena region. “We are monitoring the Middle East and North Africa, which is not part of our allocation due to the geo-political risk at the moment,” he said. “To get our attention, there would have to be a relaxation of geo-political risk. Secondly, liquidity in the market needs to improve, because market liquidity is paramount and in those markets it is still relatively shallow.”
Bellini added that the UAE and Qatar could be of interest in the future if they were to be upgraded from frontier to emerging market status. “It will probably be medium term before we look to Mena again,” he said. “Whether we’ll go in or not that’s a different story – it depends very much on macro conditions.”
The London-based firm has been increasing its allocation to emerging markets fund managers since September 2011, particularly within its wealth management division. “What we look at predominantly is all investments on a risk-adjusted basis. We are a total return asset management company so
we would prefer to invest opportunistically,” Bellini added.
