Iraq catches eye of investors with patience

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It may have taken months of haggling and brinkmanship but Iraq’s general elections are now due to take place early in March. They will determine the 325 members of the Council of Representatives, who are in turn due to elect a president and prime minister.

Many investors in the country argue it is not who wins the elections that is important, or even the precise level of unrest that surrounds the polls, so much as the fact that elections take place at all. Having patience and taking a long-term view in Iraq are paramount, they say.

“We tend to look at micro trends and ignore the macro. The overall trend continues to move forward,” says Adam Such, a former commander of a US military unit that fought in Iraq after the invasion of 2003. Mr Such is now executive vice-president of C3 Invest, a California-based private equity fund.