AI Hedge Awards 2017

Acquisition International - Hedge Fund Awards 2017 63 Waha Capital Asset Manager of the Year - Abu Dhabi & Best CEEMEA Fixed Income Securities Fund (3 Years): Waha CEEMEA Fixed Income Fund SP (A) Waha Capital Company: Waha Capital Name: Amer Aidi Email: amer.aidi@wahacapital.ae louy.alassadi@wahacapital.ae Web: www.wahacapital.ae Phone: 026677343 HF170069 Waha Capital is an Abu Dhabi-based investment company that offers a range of attractive opportunities to institutional investors. We caught up with Amer Aidi to tell us more about the firm and the investment products and solutions it provides. Waha Capital, based in Abu Dhabi, is one of the region’s leading diversified investment houses. Having traditionally been focused on managing private equity investments, the company over the last five years built out a business investing in public markets including Fixed Income and Equity products. Amer discusses the firm’s investment offering and how this helps to meet the needs of the firm’s investors, who include institutional investors, family offices, and private wealth clients. “At Waha Capital we offer investors access to our two funds: the Waha MENA Equity Fund and the Waha CEEMEA Fixed Income Fund. Both funds have an absolute return mandate, as such have the ability to go long or short publicly listed securities. Clients are seeking to steadily compound their invested funds with limited drawdown and are looking for an investment vehicle that has the capability to provide absolute return in a positive or negative global market backdrop. “Our investment philosophy helps meet this need and sets us apart from our competitors, as does our long / short mandate. We are able to take both long and short positions within our investment universe, enabling us to put on relative value long / short trades where we can capitalise on mispriced securities whilst keeping overall market risk to a minimum. This strategy is particularly effective in current market conditions, where reduced liquidity results in increased market dislocation during sell offs.” Ultimately, as a relatively recent entrant into the public market business, Waha Capital has gained a strong reputation both locally in the region as well as internationally over a short period of time. Going forward, Amer believes that the firm’s recent success will help it to achieve greater triumphs. “Moving forward, we firmly believe that this could be the beginning of a growth phase for the business. With our multi-year track record and investment team in place, we have recently placed an increased emphasis on expanding the awareness, and marketing the platform to the appropriate audience. There has been a growing interest for our products, as investors are impressed by our ability to hedge risk and preserve capital in downturns.” Wermuth Asset Management European Thought Leader in Sustainable Asset Management & Best Performing Long-Only European Equities Strategy: WEIS Wermuth Asset Management Company: Wermuth Asset Management GmbH Name: Dieter Wermuth Web: www.wermutham.com Address: Johannisstr. 3, 10117 Berlin HF170068 Wermuth Asset Management GmbH (WAM) is a German family office and BaFin-regulated investment adviser. Founding Partner Dieter Wermuth talks us through the firm and the investment strategies it provides. Since its foundation Wermuth Asset Management has identified core areas of business where it can bring added value for its investors. The firm focuses on the following investment strategies: private equity with a focus on resource efficiency; real estate development; systematic long/short equity; and long - only activist value investing. Each strategy aims to achieve a positive real total return over the medium term. The firm’s flagship approach, Wermuth Europe Income Strategy (WEIS), is a high value focused strategy which Dieter is keen to discuss. “WEIS is a strategy which centres around value investing, with a focus on yield-generating assets in West European listed assets, as well as cash. Since this is a buy-and- hold approach without the use of leverage, there won’t be any forced sales in a crisis. In order to keep transaction costs to a minimum, holding periods are several years. Even so, weekly liquidity is a key feature of the strategy - the portfolio consists almost exclusively of liquid large-cap stocks. “From November 2011, when the strategy was launched, through to November 2016, the average annual return has been 19.4%, compared to 8.6% for the EuroStoxx 50 Net Return Index which is used as a benchmark. No investments have been made, or will be made, into companies engaged in the exploration and production of fossil fuels, or stocks of firms which depend on burning them, in particular into any of the “Carbon 200 companies”, as defined by Carbon Tracker. In terms of fossil fuel reserves, these are the world’s largest listed ones.” Looking to the future, Dieter foresees a number of exciting developments which will help the firm to build upon the current success of its innovative strategy. “Within the investment industry we foresee further future development of quant strategies, high-frequency in particular; also artificial intelligence, neural networks, machine learning, big data are all parts of industry development. Many strategies in listed space are now more systematic and use some quant algorithms. “With specific regards to our firm’s approach, as our aim is to buy and hold and to focus on liquid stocks, management and other fees are expected to remain very low while the income flow will be steady and generous. As such ours is an ideal strategy for long-term investors with predictable liabilities.”