Frank Kane’s notebook: A lot of bull on offer at DIFC investment show

The Bushvelt Dalma Scarce Species Conservation Fund is an investment vehicle that seeks to preserve and strengthen some of the world’s endangered species including Cape buffalo such as Zorro, above. CShow more

There was a lot of bull on offer at the Dubai International Financial Centre this week.

And I mean a lot of bull.

Zorro, the prize Cape buffalo, was the star of the show at the Alternative Investment Management Summit at the DIFC conference centre.

The event is a must-attend meeting if you’re interested in investing in virtually anything other than straightforward equities, bonds or cash.

So it was all about real estate, precious metals, jewels. And bulls such as Zorro.

He is a five-year-old male owned by the Bushvelt Dalma Scarce Species Conservation Fund, an investment vehicle that seeks to give you a return on your money while preserving and strengthening some of the world’s endangered species, such as Cape buffalo.

The fund was set up by a former South African policeman, Werner Pretorius, who wanted to do something to stop the poaching that was destroying native species in the bushvelt, the subtropical wild lands in the north of the country.

“I got tired of seeing these magnificent animals, and others, being illegally hunted and wanted to do something to preserve the species.

“Making it financially efficient seemed to be a good way to do that,” he said after the event in the salubrious environs of a cocktail party at Opera Gallery in DIFC Gate Village.

The fund is managed by Dalma Capital, the Dubai-based hedge fund run by Howard Leedham, the former soldier who has done a fair bit of hunting himself in the past, although mainly of the non-animal kind.

“I got to know Werner and he was so passionate about the fund that I thought it was the kind of thing Dalma should be doing, both from an ecological and investment point of view,” Mr Leedham said.

Zorro is worth about US$700,000, mainly because of his prodigious abilities as a buffalo stud. He will carry on producing offspring until he is about 15 years old, which again adds up to a lot of bull.

He is potentially a very valuable hunk of meat – the most expensive Cape buffalo bull ever sold went for $3.4m. The calves Zorro fathers are sold at auction to keep the buffalo populations of conservation reserves and national parks healthy and up to optimum numbers.

The fund also breeds antelope, wildebeest and impala, all species that are prone to disease and poaching in other parts of Africa.

“You should imagine it like a Godolphin for wild animals. They are the finest of the species,” said Mr Leedham, referring to the UAE’s premier thoroughbred racehorse stables.

“There are plans next year to bring some rhino into the veld parks, which is a real challenge and very exciting,” he says.

The fund opens next month, seeking to raise up to $50m.

If any single investor puts up $5m or more, he or she will also be entitled to a stay at one of the VIP lodges on the fund’s 6,000 hectares of reserves, presumably to watch their assets graze and frolic in the velt sunset.

Now you cannot do that with stocks and shares.​

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