CI CAPITAL

Cash Manager of the Year • Egypt Asset Manager of the Year

Egypt-headquartered CI Capital received this year’s Cash Manager and Egypt Asset Manager of the Year awards in recognition of its efforts in the asset management space.

Abol-Enein, CI Capital Asset Management (CIAM) CEO and Managing Director said the firm’s aim in 2022 was to increase the size of its asset management portfolio. It grew the size of its assets under management (AUM) from EGP 14.5 billion (GBP392.1 million) to EGP 49.7 billion, making it the largest asset manager in its home country and one of the largest in the Middle East region. It credits the increase in year-on-year AuM to factors such as the onboarding of new client accounts across most asset classes.

In the year ending August 2022, CIAM increased its offering of money market funds, fixed income funds, and balanced funds. It currently manages Egypt’s largest portfolio of cash management tools, which includes

13 money market funds, including Egypt only foreign currency-denominated funds, and four fixed income instrument funds. In 2022, the firm announced plans to launch three new funds, a cash fund investing in short-term debt instruments, including a large segment dedicated to individuals and companies, as well as a fund for commodities.

CIAM’s money market and fixed income funds have been ranked among the best performing according to reports by the Egyptian Investment Management Association. The firm grew across all asset classes including equities and Shariah-compliant and fixed income. It notes that it achieved first quartile ranking among peers and delivered positive alpha in its discretionary equity portfolios relative to the main benchmark.

Established 16 years ago, Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) is the largest and most diversified derivatives exchange in the Middle East, providing guaranteed settlement and reduced counterparty risk through the Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation (DCCC), a subsidiary 100% owned by DGCX.

DCCC started clearing several new products launched by DGCX over the course of the year, including the Israeli Shekel Futures Contract in June 2022, following the receipt of a permit from the Israel Securities Authority in 2021.

DGCX continues to witness strong investor appetite for its currencies portfolio despite the economic turbulence taking place around the world causing continuous foreign exchange (FX) and global market volatility. DGCX’s bluechip Indian SSF offering allows local and regional traders access to the price performance of a total of 50 stocks listed on the major trading indices in India, traded and settled in USD thus removing foreign exchange risk, with the advantage of centralised clearing.

DGCX also signed an agreement with FinMet Pte Ltd to review the physical bullion market and identify opportunities for DGCX across global markets, and already launched new Physical Gold Futures and Spot Gold Contracts, expanding its existing product offering.

Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation (DCCC) provides clearing, settlement, and risk management services to DGCX and is the only Central Counter Party in the Middle East that offers clearing services across multiple asset classes: Currencies, Base and Precious Metals, Hydrocarbons and Equity derivatives, both index and single stock.

DCCC also remains the only clearing house globally with a proven track record in clearing and delivering a physical, exchange traded Shari’ah compliant product, the DGCX Spot Gold contract.

In addition, DCCC is a member of CCP12, a global organisation of CCPs which work together to minimise global systemic risk and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of international markets, and a member of Euroclear Bank and Clearstream for collateral solutions.

During the qualifying period, DCCC cleared nearly 8.65 million contracts, with a cleared value of more than USD 173.90 billion, cementing its leading position within key markets.

DCCC also remains the only clearing house globally with a proven track record in clearing and delivering a physical, exchange traded Shari’ah compliant product, the DGCX Spot Gold contract.

SCL has scooped up the Consultant of the Year award in 2022, taking over from previous winner Insight Discovery.

Founded in 2017, the firm supports several securities exchanges and other financial institutions across emerging and frontier markets including in the MENA region, SubSaharan Africa and South Asia, and since adding data monetisation and data services in 2020, it has seen its client base grow further.

The firm notes it has won tenders/requests for proposals against its competitors for the provision of data services and data monetisation to securities exchanges.

‘Our clients have indicated our success against these global players is due to SCL Advisory’s unique perspective on the data monetisation market as well as dedicated service to its clients,’ notes managing director Selloua Chakri.

HSBC won the Fund Administrator of the Year 2022 award, taking over from Northern Trust who was the winner last year. The Anglo-Asian bank was one of the first financial institutions to launch fund administration services in the MENA region and manage funds in key markets in the region.

It plays an active role in the MENA fund markets, and has relationships with many of the region’s asset managers supporting services such as transfer agency, performance measurement and investment compliance monitoring.

It has also picked to the Global Custodian and SubCustodian of the Year awards, the latter for the second year running. The lender had US$10.8 trillion in assets under custody as of the end of 2021 and is one of the most active custodians in the MENA region, counting sovereign wealth managers, asset managers, pension funds and insurance companies as clients. HSBC came out top in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Global Investor 2022 Sub-Custody survey.

According to Nabeel Abdul Rahim Albloushi, HSBC’s head of corporate sales for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, and head of markets and securities services in the UAE, HSBC’s banking and markets capabilities in the UAE and the wider region helped clients in the Middle East and North Africa raise more than $19 billion from investors worldwide in 2021 and more than $15bn in the first half of 2022.

Citi has returned for yet another year to win the MENA Transition Manager of the Year award. Year to date, the US-headquartered bank has transitioned over $15bn of assets for its MENA-based clients while continuing to build new relationships across the region. Notably, it credits its ‘tailored solutions-based approach’ to each transition mandate which ensures all client requirements are met and risks are managed efficiently.

In the equities space, Citi leverages its own infrastructure, with local trading desks in over 70 countries, while in fixed income, it can minimise costs associated with a transition by utilising other broker-dealers and its own bond inventory.

‘Our strong performance is highlighted by a 90% win rate for transition bids this year,’ it notes. ‘Our drive to deliver transparency around our transitions is achieved via our detailed Pre-Trade, Interim and Post-Trade reporting… the extent of the reporting is reflective of both our clients’ expectations and the specific asset class being transitioned.’

The bank, which has over 30 years of experience in the transition management space, has shared some highlights which have underpinned its recent strategy.

While last year Citi was focusing on supporting MENAbased clients in their global post-Covid recovery efforts, it notes that more recently, the strategy has moved to addressing the ‘significant rise in volatility’ and its impact on the near and long-term shift in asset allocation. As such, Citi has executed multiple fixed income transitions on an agency basis across the entire liquidity and risk spectrum during the height of market volatility. Across equities, Citi’s MENA clients have shifted into active emerging market portfolios focused within single countries and sectors.

GROUP International Exchange of the Year

CME Group is a leading and diverse financial marketplace offering a wide range of products for managing risk in uncertain times. It is the only exchange that allows customers to trade all investible asset classes on one platform.

For example, CME Group offers unique tools to manage interest rate risk during Libor transition, including Eurodollars, SOFR futures, SOFR swaps, Term SOFR, and BSBY. In addition CME Group actively educates local markets in MENA on Libor transition and facilitates access to CME Term SOFR.

CME Group introduced new products to help clients with their ESG goals, including Global Emissions Offset futures, Nature-Based Global Emissions Offset futures and Cobalt and Lithium Futures. They also launched new futures and indices, such as Ether Futures, Micro Bitcoin Futures, Micro Ether Futures (Crypto), BSBY futures, Micro Yield Futures, Trade-at-Settle (Interest Rates) and Micro WTI Futures, Japanese Power Futures, (Energy) to diversify their product offering. Additionally, CME Group has developed more than 40 Implied Volatility Indices (CVOL) which are the first cross-assets class volatility indices in the industry.

CME Group is extremely focused on meeting the needs of their clients through various engagement efforts such as hosting events and providing educational resources. They saw a 17% increase in customer engagement in 2021 and hosted a variety of online and in-person events in the Middle East. Additionally, the group hosted the first ‘MENA Derivatives Trading Challenge’ and embedded educational content on our partners’ websites.

CME Group’s total volume has steadily increased during non-U.S. trading hours, reaching a record 5.5 million in average daily volume (ADV) in 2021. The MENA region has seen strong growth in volumes across all client segments, with an over 50% Year-on-Year growth in 2022.

CME Group is extremely focused on meeting the needs of their clients through various engagement efforts such as hosting events and providing educational resources.

SICO also once again won the Sukuk manager of the year and Bahrain broker of the year awards.

SICO is a well-established and reputable firm in the financial industry, known for its exceptional performance in asset management, brokerage, and investment banking. The company has an impressive track record with over $4.75 billion in assets under management, making it a leading player in the region. SICO operates under the oversight of the Central Bank of Bahrain, which ensures that the firm adheres to a strict regulatory framework, providing clients with full confidence in the services offered.

The company caters to a diverse range of clients, including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, commercial banks, and funds. These clients are primarily based in five of the six GCC states, and SICO’s unique selling point is its inhouse research team that covers hundreds of companies in the GCC. This team provides investment managers with daily ideas and insights, giving SICO a competitive edge over other firms that rely on external or delayed research to make investment decisions.

SICO’s brokerage division has consistently been named as Bahrain Bourse’s number one broker for over two decades. In 2017, SICO launched its SICO LIVE online trading platform, which provides clients with seamless multi-market access across regional and international stock markets.

In 2022, SICO took a step further and launched a simplified digital onboarding process for SICO LIVE, empowering customers in Bahrain to open an account using only two IDs and a selfie through an eKYC service by BENEFIT. This move made SICO the first investment bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain to obtain an accreditation certificate from the BENEFIT Company, which facilitates the process of securely registering customers to enjoy SICO LIVE’s online trading services. The eKYC identification service enables SICO LIVE customers to register quicker, more seamlessly, and more securely.