Abu Dhabi: Hermes Investment Management, a London-based asset management firm, is eying Abu Dhabi as its gateway into further expansion in the GCC, with the company currently looking for a partner in the UAE, according to its chief executive officer, Saker Nusseibeh.

With assets worth £29 billion (Dh164.14 billion), Hermes aims to double the figure and reach £40-60 billion over the next few years through its global growth strategy.

In an interview with Gulf News, Nusseibeh said he hoped to become partners with 10-15 institutions worldwide over the next five years.

“We would like to grow in the UAE, but we’re looking for the right partner to grow with. Abu Dhabi is a very interesting place for us … and it’s a place where we think we can find partners.

“We’re doing the same in Asia, in Singapore, and in the United States, so it’s a model that we want to roll out,” he said.

Nusseibeh added that the company is currently in preliminary discussions with a UAE-based company, and would disclose further information once a deal is reached.

Setting its presence in Abu Dhabi is expected to help Hermes’s plans to grow into the GCC. The company is also in talks with a few institutions in North America to facilitate growth in the continent.

“Two things are driving this growth; one is there is a growth in the pool of savings in the world. The reason why we’re going so much more than the market is because there is a yearning from large clients for an asset manager that is truly aligned with their long-term interests,” the CEO said.

Discussing trends in the economy and their impact on business, Nusseibeh said he expected interest rates to remain low for some time before rising again. “We’re all living in this bubble whereby the super-low interest rates cannot last forever, and therefore, must at some stage crack. It won’t happen for another two to three years simply because the recovery is still fragile enough for rates to be kept down for a while,” he said.

Asked about performance of the UAE’s equity market, Nusseibeh said that diversification was key to reduce volatility, which comes from the market being closely tied to commodity prices, namely oil.

He did not expect falling oil prices to cause a significant decline in the appetite for IPOs (initial public offerings) as the economy was still growing.