Emirates NBD and BlackRock Create Investment Platform

Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye (MENAT) region, on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with BlackRock, one of the world’s preeminent asset management firms, to create an investment platform that will provide the bank’s wealth clients access to alternatives, specifically within private markets.

Traditionally only available to institutional investors in the region, private markets represent the fastest-growing segment of asset management, with alternative assets expected to reach USD 30 trillion by the end of the decade.

Emirates NBD Asset Management and BlackRock will launch an initial range of evergreen offerings targeting income and growth strategies on an exclusive basis for the UAE wealth market.

Alongside these strategies, BlackRock will deploy its open architecture approach to support Emirates NBD Asset Management’s plans to expand its private markets offering by providing additional services such as marketing, education, training and technology.

Through the Emirates NBD Asset Management platform, the long-term goal is to democratise the alternative assets space and offer Emirates NBD’s clients across the Middle East access to alternatives across all major asset classes.

The private markets offerings will be based on BlackRock’s Alternative Investments platform, which now exceeds $450 billion AUM and supported by over 1,000 personnel in more than 50 countries.

Supporting Clients’ Needs

Marwan Hadi, Group Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management at Emirates NBD, said that innovation has been a cornerstone at Emirates NBD, and they were partnering with BlackRock to offer access to best-in-class, products in alternative markets through a dedicated platform while supporting the growing needs of investors in the region.

Marwan said that they were deeply committed to creating value through their offerings and advancing the investment landscape in the UAE and the wider region, which has been experiencing a strong appetite in the last few years.

Rachel Lord, Head of International at BlackRock, said that spurred by investor sentiment and facilitated by product innovation, technology, and regulatory advancements, wealth allocations to private markets are predicted to increase materially over the next five years.

The combination of Emirates NBD’s distribution capabilities and reach across the region, combined with BlackRock’s expertise and global leadership in private markets, will be a compelling proposition for Middle Eastern investors, Rachel said.

It may be recalled that BlackRock Saudi Arabia teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – Public Investment Fund (PIF) – to establish a Riyadh-based multi-asset class investment platform nearly a year ago.

It will be anchored by an initial investment mandate of up to $5 billion from PIF, subject to the achievement of agreed milestones between the parties.