Abu Dhabi to host Third Annual AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Capital Forum \ Middle East 2008
AVCJ Group, publisher of the Asian Venture Capital Journal and Private Equity Asia, will host its 3rd annual AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum / Middle East , from 20th-22nd April 2008, at the Emirates Palace. The three-day forum, held for the first time in Abu Dhabi, will bring together over 300 of the most active and successful global, GCC and Asia-focused fund managers and highlight the UAE’s increasingly pivotal role in the world’s private equity and venture markets. The Forum uniquely brings together the heads of UAE and GCC family businesses and leading institutional investors with the top fund managers and investors from Asia, as well as from the US and Europe. Conference sponsors, leading private equity and venture capital firms from both the region and globally, include Gulf Capital, First Eastern Investment Group, China Renaissance, Evolvence Capital, and Oaktree Capital. ADCCI has also played an active role in supporting the conference.
The GCC’s explosive growth and significant investors have increasingly caught the attention of leading private equity firms from the Middle East, Asia, and the world’s other financial centers. Factors contributing to this interest include the region’s investment opportunities, recent market reforms, privatization of state-owned assets, and more liquid stock markets. Governments and corporations have seen the positive role that private equity can play in creating globally competitive organizations, which has in turn enhanced access to deal flow for both global and regional private equity fund managers. By the end of 2007, funds under management for the MENA region amounted to US$16 billion, from the previous year. The limited partner community is also growing alongside the local GPs, creating a broader and more sophisticated universe for local and global fundraising.
The Asian market also continues to grow strongly, with high GCC investor interest in China and India. Funds under management rose by 14% in 2007, to US$190.7 billion. The year marked a record US$50 billion in funds raised, and showed respectable investment and exit performances across the board. MENA private equity investors are taking an ever greater interest in the opportunities offered by Asia, which in 2007 outperformed the crisis-hit Western markets in relative terms. Asian firms and investors have reciprocated with growing enthusiasm for investing into and alongside Middle Eastern groups. Indeed, one of the conference themes is the significant flows of capital, investments and people within an Asian-Middle East “Super Economy.”
The forum will highlight trends and opportunities in the private equity and venture capital market across these two important regions.
Topics include:
• Private equity as catalyst to growth in the Middle East
• Sovereign wealth funds and their growing role in global markets
• Family offices in the Middle East
• Private equity opportunities in energy and real estate
• Private equity and infrastructure investment in Saudi Arabia
• Growth capital and buyouts in the Middle East
• Venture capital in the Middle East
• Private equity across China, India and the Middle East. ‘CHIME’
• A look at international institutional investor interest in the Middle East
