DUBAI, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Gulf Capital is taking companies in its portfolio East as the Abu Dhabi-headquartered private equity firm bets on growth in Asia to outperform U.S. and European markets, its chief executive Karim El Solh said on Wednesday. Gulf Capital, which manages more than $2.5 billion in assets, has been expanding its companies" exposure to Asia through organic growth, joint ventures and new market entries, El Solh told reporters. The firm, a big investor in healthcare, technology, fintech and business services, navigated the pandemic well, with its investments growing during the health crisis, he said. "We are just looking at the latest financial results, as of September 31, across all our portfolio companies our profitability is up 74% on the previous year. "Our companies not only recovered to the 2019 levels, but they"re hitting all time record highs and their profitability is surging," he said. The firm is considering exiting a number of investments next year. "The companies are getting to the point where they are maturing," he said, adding the firm was looking at regional and global exits through both strategic and financial buyers, as well as potential initial public offerings (IPOs). "Local equity capital markets are doing very, very well, there"s a lot of liquidity in the system and finally the IPO window is opening so we"re excited about pursuing potential IPOs," he said. Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh Editing by Mark Potter