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The UAE asset management industry manages $1,264.8m in assets in about 31 funds as of 21st July, 2015, according to Marmore’s UAE Asset Management report.
Equity funds lead the pack with a 69 per cent share, followed by specialised funds at 20 per cent. The remainder of the assets is spread across money market and fixed income funds. Of the total assets, Islamic funds manage $435m (34.4 per cent) in assets and rest is conventional funds. In terms of the number of funds, there are 23 equity funds, 4 money market funds, 3 specialized funds and 1 fixed income fund.
The assets under management to GDP ratio for the UAE stands at 0.5 per cent. This suggests there is a lack of mutual fund penetration as an investment option. The UAE asset management market is small in comparison to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The top five asset managers account for 75 per cent of the total assets being managed. They are Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank with $374m (29 per cent market share), followed by Emirates NBD Asset Management Limited with $339m (26 per cent share) and Abu Dhabi Investment Company with $153m (12 per cent share).