An influx of some of the world’s biggest hedge funds, from Millennium Management to Balyasny Asset Management, has pushed the industry’s headcount in Dubai to over 1,000, burnishing the city’s credentials as an emerging hub for the sector.
While that’s still a fraction of the numbers employed in the biggest financial centers – hedge funds in North America and Europe have close to 100,000 staff – the headcount has been ticking up in Dubai, according to data from the city’s financial freezone.
It’s not just hedge funds. The Dubai International Financial Centre has seen employee numbers surge by two-thirds since 2019 to nearly 44,000. The financial hub expects a record number of firms to set up this year too, and is building three new office towers to meet the anticipated demand.
The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, has emerged as a magnet for hedge funds over the past few years. Izzy Englander’s Millennium, Michael Platt’s BlueCrest Capital Management, and Balyasny have all expanded operations to Dubai, drawn by a slew of incentives, a favourable timezone and a low tax regime.
The US$68.8 billion Millennium has, in particular, been aggressively ramping up operations since securing a licence in 2020, employing close to 100 people. Meantime, Balyasny aims to double its 12-person workforce in Dubai, Bloomberg has reported.
Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, meanwhile, has more than 30 people based in Dubai and will move to a new office with space for 80 people in the Index Tower in November, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Multistrategy hedge funds moving to a region has an outsize impact on the number of people employed by the industry, given they have teams of traders investing for them. While such firms account for just 8% of assets, Goldman Sachs Group estimates that they account for a quarter of total headcount in hedge funds.
Neighbouring Abu Dhabi, which has the added attraction of being one of few cities globally to manage US$1.5 trillion in sovereign wealth, has also managed to draw in big names. Brevan Howard Asset Management now manages more money from that emirate than anywhere else, Bloomberg News has reported. BLOOMBERG
