European asset management firm Eurazeo has opened its first Middle East office in Abu Dhabi. Mathieu Teisseire, Eurazeo, Head of Investor Relations told Bloomberg's Abeer Abu Omar on Horizons Middle East & Africa on why they decided to expand in the region despite the geopolitical tensions.
Eurazeo has opened its first Middle East office in Abu Dhabi. The European asset management firm joins other private market firms such as Temasek and Pantheon, expanding in the region despite geopolitical tensions. Matthew Taysir, head of investor relations at Eurazeo, joins us now. Matthew, good morning. Good to have you with us. I'll start with um a straightforward one. Why Abu Dhabi and why now?
Well, thank you very much Abby and good to be with you on the show this morning. Um, why Abu Dhabi and why now? Well, it was a natural next step for us. Um, we've been presence in the region over decades, we built long trusted relationship. And why now, it comes I would say timing is not a coincidence. It comes at the moment where more and more investors from the Gulf regions want to invest in Europe for the sake of diversification.
Sometime we say also stability of Europe is something people are looking for. And other would say maybe the predictability of the continent. We'd like to think they could like to come for the quality of the companies and that's what Eurazeo on the ground is promoting in Abu Dhabi.
Okay, so this move to come to Abu Dhabi at this time, is it really to access Gulf capital or to deploy it or is it a mixture of both both elements?
We definitely, it's a mixture of the of the two. We definitely see both trends. I mean for decades, we've been able to position Eurazeo as a gateway for Gulf investors want to invest in European market, but today, what we've seen what accomplished the Gulf countries over the last decades, positioning the region as a for innovation and growth. Makes that also very much interested in looking at what's happening on the ground and it's a fantastic we see great companies from time to time
to build up a portfolio of companies, to make some local acquisition. So I would say it's both ways, accessing capital, promoting our portfolio companies for the development underground and also capture some local opportunities.
Can you um, walk us through some of the things that investors in the region are asking for that you couldn't necessarily serve from abroad?
I mean, the current geopolitical environment reminds us that proximity do matter especially in difficult times. So the the role of the office first and foremost will be to materialize this proximity, to materialize this long-term commitment because partnership is not only a mere word, sometimes is actual fact and that's what this opening um is there to do. Will that be much different than what we used to do? Not really but
but I would allow us definitely to be able to be more connected locally.
All right. Let me just talk about some of the big entities that are part of this region. And of course we talk about some of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds that exist either here in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, in Kuwait as well. So when we talk about this region, what opportunities do you see to invest here? What sectors kind of bring about your interest or do you see the proximity to those large sovereign wealth funds as a plus given what is happening right now in the region?
Um thank you for the question. in terms of of sectors, um Euraze spend most of its time focusing on finance, techble services, health care and environmental solutions. On the latest, we see a lot of dynamism in the region and soon in a few next few days we'll be announcing a recent a new transactions for one of our portfolio company. So environmental solution, number one, I mention tech, cyber security Europe as a strong edge. The Middle East overall
is very much interested in that sector as well. So that's one. And that was say that's the two sectors where we spend most of our time looking at local opportunities.
Okay, we will be on the lookout for that disclosure, but just finally, what would theoretically Matthew make you double the size of your operation here within the next five years or so?
But one of course, um the developments of our partnership in the region which commend more and more uh development approach and and proximity number one and two, we hope and we will, that's what we're aiming for. Uh the development of a portfolio company in the region. That's a very strong axis of the value creation toolbox that we deploy, the internal international expansion of European midmarket companies and we see the goal from natural next step for this portfolio companies to continue grow internationally.
