Hazem Ben-Gacem, founder and CEO of BlueFive Capital joins CNBC's Access Middle East to discuss his over $2.6 billion fund's investment strategy.

Mumbai

A prominent Gulf investor has announced a strategic partnership with a major Chinese investment bank, aiming to capitalize on growing economic and political ties between China, India, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The investor noted that recent geopolitical shifts have led to a rerouting of both trade and capital, with institutions in Asia showing strong interest in investing in the Middle East and vice versa.

Despite ongoing geopolitical tensions, including trade tariffs and economic competition involving the US, the firm recently closed the largest private equity fund ever raised in the Gulf, valued at $2 billion. The investor believes that periods of uncertainty can unlock new opportunities, particularly in financial services and infrastructure, and emphasizes the importance of local presence and expertise to navigate these dynamic markets.

Why this Gulf investor is betting billions on India and China

What about China and the GCC as well? We know the political and economic links have been deepening over the last couple of years. What's the opportunity for your firm here given this new partnership with this leading Chinese investment bank. Yeah. So indeed we are quite excited with the partnership we have set up in place with the CICC capital. Let me just say that the changing geopolitics have resulted in the rerouting of trade rerouting of trade very very quickly follows rerouting of capital. And that's what we're seeing an immense quantum of appetite from institutions in Asia to invest in the Middle East and vice versa. It is that corridor not just a corridor of trade but corridor of capital of what the blue five and I hope many other institutions will start to tap into. Then let me touch on a very important photo that we all have seen last week which I think will have probably the most profound impact particularly around that China Middle East route which is the very warm handshake between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi. That is the rapprochement of two of the world's largest economies and most populous economies will have an incredible ripple economic positive ripple economic effect throughout Asia and more specific and also specifically around the GCC. OK so expand on that for me. If that handshake unlocks a new type of capital flow then what's the opportunity for you and where specifically do you want to be investing. Give me some specific sectors that are going to benefit as a result of these improving trade ties. Is that so. They are between China and India alone that both. First of all there is an incredible level of rapprochement and affinity between those two ginormous economies and the Middle East. Second of all historically at least hopefully going forward there is going to be a an approachment between those two nations in aggregate between the two of them. That's nearly three billion three billion population. The GCC can play a very important role specifically around financial services around providing capital to many of the industry sectors but also infrastructure sectors which particularly in many parts across the corridor of the India China corridor will benefit from. How some some would say you're quite brave in this environment as well because the political uncertainty is also running high. You say it's an opportunity but at the same time here we have the U.S. asking the Europeans to hit China and India with a 100 percent tariff. And then at the same time the U.S. and China are in an effective economic competition. Some would even say war. The U.S. also directly targeting India with 50 percent tariffs for buying Russian crude. So how do you invest around this geopolitical noise and all of the uncertainty coming from this White House. Yeah. So so first I should say then we have two months ago closed the largest private equity fund ever raised in the Gulf. A two billion dollar blue five for each fund. If anything that's a strong testament of the opportunity across the global south not just in the GCC across the global south in periods of uncertainty. That's where certain opportunities unlock get unlocked. And that's where we are seeing across many different sectors across certain activity both not just in China but also in Southeast Asia and in the Middle East. It is that dynamic change in markets both on the political and economic front that provides us as investors the ability to go in and hopefully take advantage of those situations. You require local access. You require local presence and local resources to understand both the situations carefully. And I hope that is what we have to five will be able to offer our investors.

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