Finance Number of hedge funds doubles at DIFC By Gavin Gibbon February 18, 2025, 5:42 PM Juergen Hasenkopf/Reuters Hedge funds have been the fastest growing sector among businesses registering at DIFC in the last year DIFC brushes off challengers More than 1,800 new companies 75 hedge funds registered The number of hedge funds registered at Dubai International Financial Centre doubled in the last year as the district brushed off the challenge of neighbouring Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Overall 1,823 new companies registered within the financial district, up 25 percent year on year. It is now home to 6,920 active companies, including 75 hedge funds, 48 of which have assets of more than $1 billion each. “It [hedge funds] has been the fastest growing sector for us in the pool,” Essa Kazim, governor of DIFC, said on Tuesday. The sector employs more than 1,000 people, as previously reported by Bloomberg. Unlike mutual funds, which pool investors’ money to buy stocks, bonds and other securities, hedge funds tend to deploy riskier strategies to try to provide bigger returns. A hedge fund may borrow money and trade derivatives including futures and options contracts as well as shorting stocks. Hedge funds usually have a longer lock-in period for investors, while also charging higher fees. London-based Eisler Capital, a multi-strategy hedge fund which manages more than $4 billion in assets, received authorisation from the Dubai Financial Services Authority in July last year to operate as an investment management firm in DIFC. It was joined in the past 12 months, among others, by Dymon Asia, an Asia-focused hedge fund that has expanded its presence to the Middle East. “The centre has become one of the world’s top 10 locations for hedge funds and is on track to become top five in the coming years,” the DIFC said in a statement. This is in spite of strong competition from Abu Dhabi General Market and the Saudi capital Riyadh. ADGM, in particular, has attracted global financial big-hitters including Brevan Howard Asset Management, the world’s 13th-largest hedge fund by assets under management. Dubai has no plans to give up its crown. Now DIFC 2.0 is coming Hedge funds and wealth managers ‘are a boon’ for DIFC ADGM reports 31% increase in registered entities in H1 By the end of June 2024, the number of fund and asset managers operating in ADGM reached 112, managing 141 funds. As well as hedge funds, DIFC hosts 260 banking and capital markets companies, 410 wealth and asset management firms and 125 insurance and re-insurance-related companies. Technology and innovation was the fastest growing sector, with registrations up 38 percent to 1,245 companies in 2024. Overall, the number of people employed in DIFC has increased 10 percent year on year to just over 46,000.
