Doubling Down on #SaudiArabia Stocks Helps EM Fund Manager Beat Peers - Bloomberg

Doubling Down on Saudi Arabia Stocks Helps EM Fund Manager Beat Peers - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s stocks offer some of the best buying opportunities in emerging markets, if investors look beyond oil, according to a top-performing fund manager.

The kingdom’s initiatives to reduce its economic reliance on crude will boost the market even as the global backdrop may be challenging, says Fiera Capital’s Dominic Bokor-Ingram, who has doubled his fund’s exposure to Saudi stocks to 20%. His EM fund has beaten 99% of peers this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

While the Middle Eastern nation’s stock fortunes have long moved in sync with crude prices, shares of health-care, tech and insurance firms are surging in the Tadawul All Share Index this year. The benchmark itself has rallied 12%, outperforming emerging-market gauges.

“The cultural, economic and social reforms that are happening are almost unprecedented, certainly in my career, and this is leading to huge growth in the non-oil sectors of the Saudi economy,” Bokor-Ingram, who manages $1.1 billion in developing-nation equities, said by phone. Fiera Capital overall has $122 billion under management.

The Fiera Oaks EM Select Fund, formed in 2021, has returned about 29% this year — roughly three times that of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.