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Hedge fund numbers in Dubai have reached 100, having doubled in the past two years.
DIFC, the emirate’s finance centre, annouced on Monday that it has registered its one hundredth hedge fund, of which 81 are billion-dollar AuM managers.
Firms to have set up in Dubai this year include: Baron Capital Management, BlueCrest Capital, Naya Capital Management, Nine Masts Capital, North Rock Capital, Oak Hill Advisors, Pearl Diver Capital, Select Equity Group, Strategic Investment Group, Silver Point Capital, Squarepoint Capital and Welwing Capital Group.
They join a pool of managers in DIFC including Balyasny, BlackRock, Blue Owl, Brevan Howard, Dymon Asia, ExodusPoint, Hudson Bay, Millennium, Qube Research and Technologies (QRT) and Verition.
The latest trend among AFI Power List Multi-Strategy firms is to have offices in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, now the case for Balyasny and Hudson Bay.
A convenient timezone for global trading, the region’s deep pools of talent and capital on offer from ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices and sovereign wealth funds is luring more funds, said DIFC.
It has launched the DIFC Funds Centre, an asset management co-working space, housing some of the industry’s biggest names complemented by mid-sized firms, spinouts and start-ups.
More than 85% of DIFC based hedge fund managers have the ability to raise and manage private and sovereign capital from the Funds Centre.