Fund seeks to tempt European investors

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The National Investor, an Abu Dhabi-based investment company, has launched a fund that it says is the first European Union-compliant vehicle to focus on the Middle East and North Africa region.

The company plans to invest a substantial proportion of the fund’s assets in Saudi Arabia, in an effort to attract foreign portfolio investors to the region’s biggest economy.

The fund, registered in Dublin, capital of the Irish Republic, is the first in the region to obtain a Ucits licence. This will allow it to be marketed to institutional and retail clients in the EU, a market inaccessible to most offshore funds, says Walid Hayeck, director and head of asset management at The National Investor.