The fund, called the Milltrust Sedco MENA Fund, will invest primarily in companies in the MENA region under the Ucits IV framework and will offer daily liquidity.
“In partnership with Milltrust, Sedco Capital is the first Saudi based asset management firm to be awarded a mandate to manage MENA & Saudi equities under a Ucits platform,” according to Hasan Al-Jabri, chief executive of Sedco Capital.
“We are pleased that our successful track record in managing MENA equity portfolios was able to attract a key partner such as Milltrust and we look forward to deepening our cooperation with them in the future,” Al-Jabri said.
Sedco Capital currently manages assets across a range of investments in real estate, equities and other businesses with a total under management of about $5.1bn (£3.9bn, €4.6bn).
While Milltrust International is an emerging markets focused asset manager located in London and Singapore whose main clients are sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, banks, insurance companies, corporates, family offices and charitable endowments.
Milltrust is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom and its affiliate East India Capital Management is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Economy opening
The new fund is being launched as Saudi Arabia begins to open its economy to non-Saudi investors.
The recent falls in oil prices have encouraged the government to embark on a ‘National Transformation Plan’, which aims to more than triple non-oil revenue, cut state handouts and create more than 450,000 new jobs in the private sector, all by 2020.
Under the plan and a broader initiative known as Vision 2030, the government has pledged to increase foreign direct investment, open up the Kingdom’s capital market and privatise a number of state-owned companies, including the world’s biggest oil company, Saudi Arabian Oil, which has potential value of $2trn.
Yazan Abdeen, the lead fund manager and head of MENA Capital Markets at Sedco Capital, said: “Saudi Arabia together with all other MENA markets provide a perfect optimiser for an emerging market allocation as they all provide favorable demographics, growth potential in a protected currency environment.
“Not many other emerging economies can claim such positioning.”
