Middle Eastern norms and business models are being disrupted by a new generation of entrepreneurs seeking access to markets through innovative business strategies. Private equity and venture capital funds are exploiting unprecedented potential for growth by increasing activity and partnerships with these companies and their leaders.
Moderator: Rachel Pether – Senior Advisor, Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute; Co-Host, Podcast: “Follow the Money”
Speakers
Hazem Ben-Gacem – Co-CEO, Investcorp
Jeremy Coller – Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Coller Capital
Tom Finke – Chairman and CEO, Barings
Joseph Naggar – Partner and Head of Structured Products, GoldenTree Asset Management
Q4 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc
Jeremy Coller: Global Capital Markets
Transcript
So let's start off by the U.S.-China trade war where we sort of were way out with that and where are we seeing a sort of short term and long term effects of that.
A trade war U.S.-China. So China will sign any agreement that the U.S. puts in front of them in March. They've got growth. They're saying it's 6 percent. But actually they've got growth of probably around one and a half percent. At the moment when they was 15 percent they were saying 10 percent. Now that it's won the hops and they're saying 6 not to destabilize the markets too much.
You know government officials are finding it very hard to win. Even within China government officials are finding it very hard to do business with private because of all the anti corruption that's being going on. And a lot of business is moving away from China to other Asian countries but China will sign any agreement the execution of that agreement may be something else but they'll sign any agreement in March. And so on that data point that you mentioned how can you if you can't trust the. The data that's coming out of a country have set impetuous and investor. As an investor as an investor you have to know that. That you'll investing on a micro level. But most importantly you've got to know that you're definitely in the middle of autumn. You know we had an amazing. Spring after after the winter of 2008. We've had a long summer. We're in the middle of winter. You know if you've really got growth at one point five percent are made up that number. But if you've really got growth at one point five percent. That is really bad news for China and the and the rest of the world.
And so just looking that sort of cross Atlantic we have got the U.S. China trade on one hand and then Brexit playing out and the markets on the other. How do you think BRICs will play out. How's that affecting the U.K. and your investments in Europe?
The thing about Brexit is it's a man-made issue at the end of the day, right? Much like the trade war. And so you have these issues that no one can sit here and say it's a hard Brexit it they'll get a deal. No one knows any more. I do agree trade wars do end eventually. And will it in 30 days or 60 90 we'll find out soon enough. Same with Brexit. The reality is you step back and since the referendum what has been the effect on businesses and decisions and investments you made as certainly you have to - It's caused some drag on the economy and in the UK and Europe, as investors we have to take that into consideration. So a real estate investments in the U.K. you're taking that into consideration when you think about valuations and things like that. That said. We just don't know what it means until the event occurs and then you react again.
