A government-backed investment company from Dubai plans to invest $2.5 billion in Asian economic giants India and China over the next two years, a leading financial daily said on Monday.
"The investment company has spent the last 3-4 years familiarising itself with Asia and building its portfolio with a series of small investments," Soud Ba'alawy, executive chairman of Dubai Group, was quoted as saying by the
Wall Street Journal.
With a portfolio in the region already in excess of $1 billion, the firm is now prepared to get more aggressive, and is looking at large-scale investments in manufacturing, real estate and finance, Ba'alawy said.
"We feel right now we've done the first stage," he told the
Journal in an interview in Dalian, China, where he was attending a World
Economic Forum meeting.
"We will continue to grow our business and become a meaningful investor in this region," he added.
In India, the Dubai Group has invested in the recent IPO of real estate developer DLF Ltd., while last year it bought the Indian operations of travel firm-cum-currency exchanger Thomas Cook.
The group already has offices in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur and is planning a new office in Mumbai. Asian countries' surging demand for oil and gas has made them important markets for resource-rich Middle Eastern countries, helping foster tighter political and commercial ties, the Journal reported.
"We're going to see more and more of the oil surplus recycled into Asian equities and Asian private equity," Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates Inc. said.