Firms venture into unknown territory

The Life: Michael Zehfuss talks about how a deal between Mubadala Development and Mesirow Financial will change the investment landscape.

Michael Zehfuss of at Mesirow Financial.

Mesirow Financial is a financial services firm that manages US$51 billion (Dh187.32bn) for institutional clients and is based in Chicago. It recently signed an agreement with Mubadala Development, a strategic investment company owned by the Abu Dhabi Government, to open a joint venture in the capital this year. Michael Zehfuss, a senior managing director who heads Mesirow's client management globally, talks about how the deal will change the investment landscape.

How will the new venture bring something unique to the region?

There's a hole in that there's not a viable or existing platform like this in the region. Then you take Mubadala's strength, and our track record of performing very well during numerous cycles over 21 years with a very thoughtful risk management-based approach on both currency and commodities - that package is very, very different.

What kind of advice will be offered?

The product offering is going to look very similar to what we do globally for our clients in three categories. One client type is where institutions and companies have currency and commodities exposure, and they're seeking to eliminate risk, so we just take risk out of the portfolio or operating business. The other client type has currency or commodities risk to be managed, but the client seeks active risk management. The third type would be if a client is looking for absolute return from different sources of liquid investment strategies.

So why choose the UAE's capital for the firm's first office in the Middle East?

Obviously, Abu Dhabi has very compelling growth and stability, which is hugely interesting to us but it's as much the partnership fit as anything else. For us, it all gets back to shared cultural and principle issues. Do we have a common vision with a partner to build something? Can we benefit from Mubadala's strength in the region? It's really more partnership and fit driven versus anything else.

Did Mesirow or Mubadala make the first move?

When you think about large partnerships like this, people know of one another. [Who initiated is] not integral to the process. The opportunity to build something in a different way with Mubadala, and having an eye toward building it to grow over the next 5, 10, 20 years that aligns with many of the elements of the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, is just a hugely rare opportunity. We aim to do it very, very well and increase employment training in the region.

How so?

We will be targeting and developing young UAE nationals to identify key roles for them within the venture, whether it's bringing them to Chicago or bringing our people to the region to basically transport cultural skill sets into building people. So it'll be very intentional on the training side of UAE nationals. That'll be an integral part of the DNA to the venture.

With the end goal being to have them on staff?

Working as employees, absolutely, and to be licensed eventually.

* Neil Parmar