Hedge Funds in Dubai

Over the past year, there has been a noticeable rise in articles discussing the expanding presence of hedge funds in Dubai, as well as the relocation of fund managers to the city. Consequently, we have decided to investigate the current status of hedge funds domiciled in the United Arab Emirates, as well as the actual presence of hedge fund managers located in Dubai.

To conduct our study, we used data from the global hedge fund universe provided by all major data vendors. This encompassed approximately 208,000 funds listed across all databases, with around 56,000 of these funds being unique entities.

Hedge Funds in Dubai: Search Results

We excluded defunct or liquidated funds, along with those that haven't reported performance updates for the past four months. Our search focused solely on funds with legal structures classified as hedge funds, excluding entities such as Open Ended Funds, SICAVs, FCPs, and ETFs. The results are summarized in the following table:

Funds	Number of Funds
Management Firm in the UAE	21
Domiciled in the UAE	5
Domiciled in the Cayman Islands	17
Domiciled in Mauritius	3
Domiciled in Bermuda	1
Funds’ age less than 2 years	3
Funds’ age 2 – 3 years	0
Funds’ age more than 3 years	18

The findings are quite interesting. Firstly, it's evident that the majority of hedge funds still favor traditional offshore registrations such as the Cayman Islands over the UAE. Secondly, our analysis indicates that there hasn't been a notable surge in new hedge funds in the UAE over the past year. In fact, only one fund was incorporated in August 2022, with no new funds recorded in 2023.

It's understandable that some might question these results, given the seemingly low numbers. However, several factors should be considered. Firstly, not all hedge funds are listed with major data providers, meaning some operate under the radar. Additionally, it's crucial to emphasize once more that our search specifically targeted funds with a legal structure classified as hedge funds. It's worth noting that searching for offshore Open Ended and SICAV funds returned over 1,300 funds with management companies based in the UAE.

Top 5 Hedge Funds in Dubai

To select top best funds, we used Risk Shell’s FlexiRank™ metrics which included nine ranking risk statistics calculated over the time period of the last 3 years:

• Mean RoR
• VaR⁹⁵
• Maximum Drawdown
• Time-Under-Water
• Stress Drawdown Average
• Stress Drawdown Maximum
• Semi-deviation
• Downside Deviation
• Positive Return Ratio

When calculating stress statistics, we took into account 31 historical extreme events since 1998. The top 5 hedge in Dubai and their Flexi ranks are listed in the following table:

Funds	FlexiRank™	Percentiles
		Mean	VaR95	MaxDD	TUW	Stress~	Stress^	SemiDev	DownDev	Positive %
Waha MENA Equity Fund SP (A)	35.510	0.894	0.716	0.853	0.857	0.492	0.878	0.602	0.811	1.000
Waha CEEMEA Credit Fund SP	34.955	0.235	1.000	0.921	0.786	0.478	0.844	0.967	0.943	0.818
Waha Islamic Income Fund Class A	34.803	0.252	0.997	0.970	0.929	0.438	0.920	1.000	1.000	0.455
Amwal Capital Partners MENA Fund LP (Class B)	34.621	0.808	0.943	0.951	0.821	0.456	0.844	0.744	0.902	0.455
Waha Emerging Markets Credit Fund (A)	34.473	0.234	0.999	0.918	0.786	0.478	0.844	0.967	0.942	0.727

 

Drilling Down Into Test Results

Finally, we’ve run the multi-statistic peer group analysis for the top ranked fund Waha MENA Equity Fund SP (A) as shown below. Active hedge funds with the trading strategy Emerging Markets - MENA have been selected as a peer group.

Feel free to reach out to us for a comprehensive risk assessment of hedge funds domiciled in the UAE.

Learn More About FlexiRank™

For a deeper understanding of the FlexiRank™ concept and how it facilitates asset comparison, we invite you to join our dedicated webinar Asset Ranking Techniques. Explore a dynamic framework that enhances your ability to compare and rank assets, providing a comprehensive and holistic perspective on risk and return.