Mobius confident about UAE markets

Dubai : Mark Mobius continues to have faith in Dubai and the UAE markets as a long-term investment destination, despite murmurs in some quarters that foreign institutional investors are likely to stay away in the aftermath of Dubai World's $26 billion (Dh95 billion) debt standstill request last month.

The executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management, who oversees more than $30 billion of emerging markets assets, dispelled any such doubts when it came to his frontier funds investing in the region, more specifically Dubai.

The steps the Dubai government intends to take as it moves forward came in for much praise from Mobius, hoping that they work on their promise and realise it.

"Saying that they are going to improve transparency and corporate governance are very very good steps," he said.

"So they now got to follow up on that. I think they will. They realise that they have got to move and change."

The crashing of the prices of stocks across the board last month was an opportune time to pile in, according to Mobius, and his asset management company did just that in the right moment.

Investments

During a roundtable discussion with the local media yesterday, Mobius said they are very much invested in the Dubai stock market as well as other Gulf markets and that includes investments in property, financial services, consumer goods and globally diversified companies such as ports.