Dubai: An increasing number of mid-cap German firms are eyeing joint ventures and alliances with Gulf Arab partners as a means to tap opportunities in the region and diversify their portfolios, the head of boutique investment bank FCF said.
Sectors include those where the specialisation and expertise of German firms and high net Gulf investors can collaborate, Arno Fuchs, the chief executive of the German bank, said in an interview with media.
Strategic partnerships between companies with a market cap of between $100 million (Dh367 million) and $1 billion in the industrial and high technology are a natural investment fit for Gulf institutional and high net worth investors, Fuchs said.
"There is now a shift towards strategically oriented investors. The companies that investors are opting for do have a strategic interest," he said.
Fuchs said Schoeller Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment is one of the companies that attended a capital markets day organised by FCF in Abu Dhabi for which the bank hopes to act as a matchmaker in a German-Gulf alliance.
Aurubis, Europe's biggest copper producer, also participated in the conference, as well as firms from sectors such as renewable energy, aircraft engines, and private equity.
"The products that Germany has to offer are the products the region needs," Fuchs said. "Moreover the weaker euro is cheaper for the import of infrastructure project equipment."
Privately owned Stulz H+E, a water and waste water treatment specialist, is broadening its presence in the region through new talks with Kuwait's Kharafi National for a strategic cooperation for waste water treatment plants in Kuwait and the UAE.
Another listed German company, PSI AG, specialising in control and monitoring systems for the energy, utility, and chemical industries told media in a statement that it had a deal with a Saudi industrial firm to implement test applications.
