EQT, Eurazeo Lead $700 Billion Wave of Firms Eying the UAE - Bloomberg
Private-markets firms managing over $700 billion in assets are joining a growing wave of global investors expanding into the United Arab Emirates, drawn by its deep capital pools and largely unfazed by broader regional tensions.
Sweden’s EQT AB, France’s Eurazeo and UK-based Pollen Street Capital are among those setting up in Abu Dhabi, according to people familiar with the matter. They’ll join others including growth equity investor Baron Capital Management and credit investing firm Silver Point Capital, which have recently established a presence in Dubai.
Representatives for the firms declined to comment.
These latest entrants reflect a broader pivot: after years of tapping the Gulf mainly as a fundraising source, firms ranging from Brookfield Asset Management to KKR & Co. are increasingly putting investment professionals on the ground and actively looking to deploy capital in the region.
Tensions tied to the Iran-Israel war have yet to disrupt that momentum, with several executives expressing optimism about the country’s ability to sidestep any major fallout.
The result is a widening list of private capital managers putting down roots in the UAE.
EQT, which oversees more than $300 billion, is exploring opening an office in Abu Dhabi, according to people familiar with the matter. The Swedish firm will have investment professionals on the ground and is planning to do deals in the region, the people said.
As part of a broader push into the Middle East, the firm — active across private equity, venture capital, infrastructure and real estate — may also open offices in other regional cities, hire new staff and support internal relocations, they said.
Eurazeo, which manages over $40 billion in assets, plans to open an office in Abu Dhabi this year, followed by potential expansion into other regional markets, people familiar said. Its regional footprint will include new hires and staff relocations from Europe, they said.
The Paris-based asset manager is not just targeting the region for fundraising; it also intends to invest locally. The effort is being led by Adrien Pinelli, a managing director in the firm’s investor relations team. A former French diplomat, Pinelli spent two decades strengthening France’s partnerships with Gulf nations.
Pollen Street is also in the early stages of establishing a presence in the Middle East, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The alternative asset manager, which oversees over $7 billion, recently registered in Abu Dhabi.
HarbourVest Partners, which manages around $147 billion in assets, is also exploring the possibility of opening an office in the UAE’s capital, people familiar said. Meanwhile, Baron Capital, with about $41 billion under management, has registered in Dubai.
They follow firms like Partners Group, which in June announced plans to open a new regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi to bolster its private wealth business. The Zurich-listed firm manages more than $150 billion in assets and is looking to build on its Dubai presence established in 2010.
The shift comes as high interest rates and sluggish deal pipelines in the US and Europe push managers to seek faster-growing markets — and to deepen relationships with Gulf sovereign funds and wealthy families, who have become critical limited partners.
Brookfield has been stepping up its regional push with a $2 billion dedicated fund and a $1 billion real estate joint venture, while KKR appointed former US General David Petraeus as chairman of its Middle East franchise in April and has begun assembling a local team. Others, including Warburg Pincus and Permira, have pledged to increase headcount.
The growing presence of private equity firms in the UAE comes alongside a parallel wave of expansion by hedge funds and other alternative asset managers.
Drawn by the $3 trillion in the hands of the UAE’s sovereign funds and wealthy families, the ability to trade across time zones, zero personal income tax and a high quality of life, firms such as Brevan Howard Asset Management, Millennium Management and Point72 Asset Management have set up hubs in the country in recent years. Increasingly, top traders are demanding relocations to the region.
In May, Silver Point, a $38 billion firm based in Connecticut, became one of the latest to set up in Dubai. Tim Lee, head of fundraising for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, will lead the firm’s regional operations.
The firm will operate from the emirate’s new Hedge Fund Center — a shared “plug-and-play” space launched in April that already counts around 45 firms as members.
Others, including Pearl Diver Capital, which specializes in leveraged loans, high-yield and private credit strategies, are also setting up bases in the emirate.
Market makers are also eying the UAE, with Jane Street Group LLC recently filing with regulators in Abu Dhabi to set up a local office.
The UAE has also seen an influx of well-heeled individuals arriving from the UK amid the nation bringing in higher taxes for many of its richest residents. Shravin Bharti Mittal, an heir from one of India’s richest families, has recently relocated to the region after previously living in Britain and set up a branch in April for an investment firm, Unbound, that he founded in London.
British natives already living outside the UK are also flocking to the UAE. Brevan Howard executive Jonathan Hughes and BlueCrest Capital Management’s Michael Platt have both recently surfaced as residents of the region after previously listing their residency in the UK crown dependency of Jersey, according to registry filings. Platt, 57, has a net worth of about $11.8 billion, making him Britain’s seventh-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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