Abu Dhabi's TNI seeks up to $1 bn for MENA fund

Abu Dhabi's The National Investor (TNI) hopes to raise up to $1 billion for its new Middle East and North Africa equity fund, targeting an economic and corporate recovery in the region.

The fund, which will close the first stage of fundraising on June 17, is targeting institutional investors across the Middle East, Europe and Latin America, and will be funded with $30 million of seed capital from TNI."The fact that we are seeding it with $30 million indicates that we mean to grow this fund to be very large. The capacity that we can see for the fund is between $500 million to $1 billion," said Walid Hayeck, TNI's asset management head.TNI's MENA fund has full access to Saudi Arabia and can invest up to 40 percent of its assets in the kingdom. Fund managers have been scrambling to increase their exposure to the oil-rich region, which boasts a growing population and massive government-sponsored infrastructure projects.The long-only fund will follow a "sector neutral" approach and will focus on investing across sectors by keeping the weightings equal to that of the relevant index, Hayeck said.