Bahrain Investcorp Sees Rise in Gulf Hedge-Fund Investors on Higger Return - Bloomberg

Investcorp Bank BSC, the Bahrain- based alternative-investment firm, expects the share of Gulf Arab investors in its hedge funds to rise to about half in a few years from about 30 percent now as they seek bigger returns.

“There is a lot of interest from the Middle East” in hedge funds as they have provided better returns than equity markets and with lower volatility, Deepak Gurnani, Investcorp’s head of hedge funds and chief investment officer, said in an interview in Dubai today. Middle East funds are likely to boost allocations to hedge funds over the next six to nine months, he said.

Investcorp’s funds of hedge funds business manages $4.7 billion, including $1 billion of its own money, Gurnani said. About 70 percent of the investors in its hedge funds are U.S. institutions, he said.