LONDON: French multinational insurance company AXA IM Alts has expanded its global network to the Middle East and opened its first regional office in the UAE on Monday, appointing a Saudi national to lead the local bureau as part of their strong ambitions in the region, the company said. Specialized in alternative investments, AXA IM Alts has established its new office in Abu Dhabi’s international financial center, making it the 16th globally and will be primarily focused on capital raising across the company’s private and alternative assets range, it told Arab News. AXA IM Alts has appointed Saudi Ammar Bukhamsin as the senior executive officer of AXA IM Middle East and co-head of the MENA Client Group to head the new office, alongside Francois Boissin, who will be based in Paris, with the aim of capital raising and client servicing capabilities in the region. Isabelle Scemama, the global head of AXA IM Alts, said: “The opening of our new office in Abu Dhabi marks a significant milestone in our expansion strategy and underscores the strategic importance of the Middle East in our international growth plans. “This move marks a natural progression for our business in the region and paves the way for further successful partnerships with local investors to meet their rapidly evolving investment requirements, across AXA IM Alts’ expertise,” she added. Isabelle Scemama, the global head of AXA IM Alts, said the company manages a total of €185 billion ($200 billion) on behalf of 600 clients from around the world. (Supplied) She told Arab News that the division was created in 2020 and gathered all the private assets under one umbrella, managing a total of €185 billion ($200 billion) on behalf of 600 clients from around the world, with their biggest franchise being real estate, alongside alternative credit, infrastructure, impact investment, and natural capital, which includes reforestation projects, carbon credit trading, green transportation, climate change and energy transition. “If I look at the capital rate over the past few years, 40 percent have been raised outside Europe, and the Middle East has always been an important area...so the idea is it’s more of a natural evolution, and we think, to serve our clients, we have to be established in the region,” she noted. “We see we see a lot of appetite” in the region and regard the Middle East as a key partner for European investment,” she said, adding that they will be coordinating the entire region from their new office with “the idea of being closer to our clients” through a dedicated local presence. On real estate development, Scemama said the opening of the new office comes “at a time where there are more and more regulations to reduce the energy intensity of building, so this capability to asset manage and to do development by ourselves in the different sectors, we see as an opportunity in front of us and we think that it is something that is also appealing for Middle Eastern investors.” Saudi national, Ammar Bukhamsin, has been appointed to lead the local office and co-head MENA Client Group alongside newly promoted Francois Boissin. (Supplied) The current plan is to work closely with the local players, big institutions and individuals that have a local presence from there that can help AXA IM Alts get closer to the market and invest alongside them, she said. “The idea for the moment is really to be closer to our clients, (but) we have not made the decision for the moment to invest in the region — so to deploy capital there, it may happen at some point. “But we always assist carefully our capability to deploy at scale, scale matters a lot in our market — being able to deploy a lot of capital, but also to diversify portfolio you need a significant size and we know that each time you go in a new jurisdiction it’s a lot of local understanding of the regulation, being able to deploy capital and also to establish a team,” Scemama explained. She added: “We are very strong on alignment of interest, whether it’s on infrastructure or real estate, (and) we always organize co-investments and guarantee investors that they will not be treated in parallel, but they will have access to our pipeline and they will benefit from the co-investment capabilities we can offer, so that’s something also that is quite appealing for the institutions in the region.” On Bukhamsin’s appointment, Scemama said he has a long, impressive track record and is very well established in the region as someone who can bring knowledge of the group and its products, which will allow them to be able to speed very rapidly and help open up new opportunities for the company in the long term. Florence Dard, global head of Client Group at AXA IM Alts, said: “Having built strong relationships in the Middle East over a number of years, the opening of an office in Abu Dhabi is a natural step forward in our strategy to both grow our presence and accelerate our business development in the region. “As a global leading alternative player, we have actively engaged with a large number of sophisticated Middle Eastern investors who seek attractive alternative investment opportunities, especially in Europe where we have a unique sourcing, access and breadth of offering.” Arvind Ramamurthy, the chief of market development at ADGM said: “Abu Dhabi, also known as the ‘Capital of Capital,’ has become a premier destination due to its sophisticated regulatory regimes and abundant investment opportunities. As an anchored asset management firm, we look forward to the various expertise and innovative capabilities that AXA IM Alts will bring to ADGM’s vibrant ecosystem and to the region.” Before joining AXA IM Alts, Bukhamsin previously spent over eight years at the French-based Investment banking company Natixis, including three years as the firm’s CEO for Saudi Arabia, during a 20-year career encompassing senior sales roles at Goldman Sachs, UBS and Citi, the company said. Boissin has spent the past nine years within AXA, first as vice president of investor relations for the AXA Group and then in capital raising at AXA IM Alts for the past two years, as part of a 20-year career in finance and sales, the company added.