GCC Funds

Importance of SMEs in GCC: Challenges amid COVID and way forward

Interview with Mr. M.R.Raghu, CEO, Marmore MENA Intelligence Are SMEs very important for the GCC region? How have SMEs contributed to the region? Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are vital to the economic development of the country as they foster innovation, entrepreneurship and create large-scale employment opportunities. The subject of SMEs touches upon many aspects of a nation’s economic network. By its very nature, SMEs can sprout up anywhere along the output value chain of a country, ranging from small shops to...

Home bias among GCC Funds – Preference for Domestic Stocks in Regional Funds

Institutional constraints such as barriers to invest across boundaries, limitations on repatriation of investment income, varying corporate governance standards, higher transaction costs and currency risk have been put forth as possible reasons. Interestingly, closer to home regional mutual funds in GCC markets suffer from home bias as well, despite the region being largely homogenous and frictional costs to invest across the region are largely non-existent. The primary goal of a fund manager is to maximize returns while minimizing risk. However,...