Turkey stands out from most other MENA countries for its political stability and economic diversity. Sitting on the edge of Europe and the Middle East, it has benefitted from being a bridge between both regions and taking on characteritics of …
Continue reading →

The global financial crisis has had a severely damaging effect on commodities funds. Fundamental demand/supply imbalances have been ignored and capital flows have been redirected away from long term capital intensive projects, such as commodity based infrastructure, towards other areas. …
Continue reading →

Once considered a hub for financial services in the Middle East and North Africa region with ambitions to rival Dubai, Bahrain has taken a battering in recent years with unrest leading to droves of firms pulling out of the country …
Continue reading →

Private equity has failed to flourish in the Middle East and North Africa in recent years. A range of issues are to blame, including the lack of a financial eco-system that could help deals to be executed, the small size …
Continue reading →

By Kathleen Gaffney, vice president, Loomis Sayles THERE IS no denying that 2011 was a challenging year, with many arguing that it has been somewhat difficult to find real bargains in the market. Our style at Loomis Sayles, an affiliate …
Continue reading →

By Adnan Halawi, team leader – fixed income, Zawya THE GULF Cooperation Council (GCC) states witnessed the issuance of just above $52 billion* in bonds and sukuk during 2011, an increase of 19 percent over 2010. The increase came mostly in …
Continue reading →

With emerging markets home to around 20 percent of all Fortune 500 companies, 30 percent of the world’s billionaires, and including among them the world’s second and seventh largest economies, can they realisticaly be referred to as emerging any more? Kathryn Koch, …
Continue reading →

Global economic activity has been shifting both towards emerging markets and eastwards for a number of years and this process has been accelerated to a degree by the global financial crisis. The Middle East benefits from being both a part …
Continue reading →

With unrealistically large future liabilities, pension systems across the MENA region face a future crisis, yet governments in the region are doing little to tackle the issue. Faced with social unrest their top priorities are more immediate issues such as …
Continue reading →

With a large population and sound industrial base, Saudi Arabia presents considerable opportunities for asset managers targeting the GCC region. With most of the population under the age of 25 and numbers rising by 2.5 percent a year, demographics are …
Continue reading →