Apex Fund Services' managing director Nicolas Angio, told Mena FM that tentative sentiment towards the Mena region has resulted in a number of postponed fund launches, as AUMs decrease.

 

“We have had a number of funds that have been postponed over the past month, so that seems to be the unfortunate trend,” he said. “At the moment fundraising is a significant challenge across the board and we’re seeing AUMs slightly trending downwards.” 

 

However, Angio added there has been a surge in private equity interest in the Mena region, despite stilted investment. “In the region I’d say that private equity funds used to represent maybe 10-15% of our pipeline of funds that are coming in,” he said. “If I look at it today, we’re probably talking about closer to 40-50% of private equity funds so it’s a very significant change.” 

 

2011 saw Mena fund managers contending with geo-political chaos, the US debt crisis, the eurozone crises and generally poor global macro conditions. At the end of the year, the MSCI GCC Countries (ex-SA) index was down 16.29%, while its Arabian Markets (ex-SA) index was down 22.6%. “Often fund managers are entirely dependent on market conditions and investor appetite,” Angio said. “When they decide to postpone, it’s rarely a strategic decision, it’s more a question of waiting and hoping that things are going to improve.”