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| Israeli and UAE national flags fly in Netanya, Israel, on Aug. 17. Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg |
When Tel Aviv-based financier Edouard Cukierman started his first fund in the late 1990s, some of the investors he signed up from the United Arab Emirates hid their identity behind a trust to keep their involvement discreet.
Now, the LinkedIn account of the head of Cukierman & Co. Investment House Ltd. is buzzing with 20 to 30 messages a day from Emiratis eager to do deals -- without having to conceal themselves. The shift comes after a U.S.-brokered peace process aimed at ending decades of official hostility between the two Middle East nations.
“The timing is great to start building cross-border transactions in a much more open manner,” said Cukierman, who is already planning a trip to the UAE in September to scout local partners.
The investor is among many businesses hoping the Israel-UAE pact will usher in an economic boom. While Israel’s peace deals during the 1970s and 1990s with Egypt and Jordan resolved military conflicts, the relationships never blossomed into strong corridors for trade or investment.
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