Gulf funds, family offices find value in looking east

Dubai: Gulf-based sovereign wealth funds and family offices, which have long been significant investors in North America and Europe, are reorienting their strategies and shifting eastward to India and China as part of a broader diversification effort amid rising geopolitical uncertainty and economic volatility.

Among the latest to do so is Crescent Group, one of the largest family offices in the UAE and the wider Middle East and North Africa region. The group plans to invest at least $150 million in India over the next few years through its growth equity and private equity platform, CE Invests, with a focus on mid-market deals.

Crescent, which manages assets across 25 diversified companies through its two main subsidiaries-Crescent Petroleum and Crescent Enterprises-is looking to deploy a total of $300 million across India, Southeast Asia and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) under its latest investment mandate. While the group has significant exposure to the US market through its venture capital arm, CE Ventures, it is now accelerating diversification into emerging markets via CE Invests. India anchors the strategy due to its scale and compounding growth, said Ghada Abdelkader, senior VP, CE-Invests. "In the GCC, we invest in areas driven by national transformation agendas, particularly industrial and manufacturing sectors," she said. "Southeast Asia adds further diversification. India has very strong fundamentals and is on track to become the world's third-largest economy by 2030."


The regulatory environment has been stable, with periodic reforms, rising consumption, increasing per capita income, and a strong working-age population, Abdelkader said. "When you combine these fundamentals with scale, it becomes a market we cannot afford not to invest in," she added.

CE-Invests plans primarily direct investments, complemented by selective investments alongside fund managers. The strategy targets four core sectors in India-consumer and retail, pharma and healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services, with average ticket sizes of around $25 million to $75 million per transaction.

"We have a strong pipeline across the sectors we focus on, particularly industrials, which we're very enthusiastic about...we expect to close two to three deals in India within this year," said Abdelkader, who is leading the group's expansion into India and Southeast Asia. Last year, CE-Invests made its first India deployment under the strategy, investing in Flipspaces, an office interior design services company, by participating in its $50 million Series C round.