ING Investment Management Middle East, the UAE-based office of the international investment management firm, has announced positive performance results for its first MENA Equities Fund. The ING Invest Middle East and North Africa Fund outperformed the two regional benchmark indices, MSCI Arabian Markets and MSCI Arabian Markets between Dec. 31, 2008 and May 11, 2009, by 11.14 percent and 21.55 percent respectively, with an absolute return for the fund of 21 percent. The Dubai-based equities team has targeted companies with strong fundamentals and looks beyond just value to search out visible earnings growth, strong business models and management with superior expertise and experience. A thorough investment process based on ING IM's proprietary research that combines “bottom-up” and “top-down” analyses to identify cash generative businesses, ideally with low or no leverage and government support. Farah Foustok, chief executive officer, ING IM Middle East, said: “ We have a strong, dynamic and experienced team on the ground here who understand the regional stories and are able to actively manage the Fund through market volatility.” “Following a good first five months we expect new subscriptions in the fund before the summer, and growth in the discretionary portfolio management services for institutional clients. As well as excellent performance, investors are attracted to our combination of regional experience and global international standards and best practices.” Reflecting on the Fund's strategy Fadi Al Said, head of equities, ING IM Middle East, said: “Despite the volatile markets, ING IM Middle East has been able to find interesting opportunities that returned year-to-date 21 percent in absolute terms. This demonstrates that keeping cash assets in 2009, year to date, has been an underperforming strategy.” “It is important for us to also meet with the companies we invest in to truly understand their story; something we are able to do as we are based in the region. This means that ING IM can identify opportunities in small and mid-cap companies, as well as the better known large blue chip companies. We have found that growth stories exist but the market dynamics have changed so we need to look at different influences to company fundamentals - we need to understand what drives company valuation, risks to the business and external factors of influence.” The Fund's performance to date highlights not only ING IM's commitment to identifying the growth stories across the region, but also the benefits of international best practices.
