Along with other wealth managers, the firm is keen to capitalise on opportunities in the GCC – a region of growing importance.

Independent asset manager Fiera Capital Corporation has opened an an Abu Dhabi office to build on and expand existing relationships with investors across the GCC.

Interest in the region has been fuelled by active investments in the Gulf and investors showing a growing preference for customisable “all-product” offerings, the firm said in a statement.

Based in the heart of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the Middle East office reflects Fiera Capital’s enduring ties with institutional investors across the GCC and adds to its growing global footprint spanning four continents.

“Leveraging the strong relationships we’ve forged with sovereign wealth funds, family offices, pension funds and major listed corporates in the region, we’re taking the next logical step in our expansion,” Klaus Schuster, CEO, Fiera Capital EMEA, said. “Being mature investors in the Middle East is a distinct competitive advantage.”

The newly-established office will be co-led by Paul Doyle and Xavier Zawisza, who are joining from an investment bank in the UAE. Doyle and Zawisza will be responsible for growing Fiera Capital’s established investor base. They were selected for their extensive Middle East fundraising expertise and experience of advising large institutional investors on asset manager search and selection.

Among other organisations recently establishing bases in the ADGM are IQ-EQ and the US investment house GQG, as shown here. They are part of a wave of businesses tapping into the Gulf’s wealth bonanza. The UAE is the largest wealth market in the Middle East and the 26th largest worldwide (in terms of total wealth held). People living in the UAE together hold $925 billion in net assets. Around $470 billion (or 51 per cent) of that is held by high net worth individuals. In all, there are about 88,700 HNW individuals living in the UAE (source: Boston Consulting Group, 2022).

Founded in 2003 by chairman and global chief executive officer Jean-Guy Desjardins and headquartered in Montreal, Fiera Capital has over $122 billion under management across both public and private markets strategies. It has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. In response to its global expansion, the firm has recently appointed CEOs for EMEA (Klaus Schuster), the US (Eric Roberts) and Canada (Maxime Ménard), rebooting Fiera Capital’s regionalised distribution model.