Wafa Gestion Features in Forbes ‘Top 30 Asset Management Companies’

Rabat – Forbes has featured Morocco’s Wafa Gestion in the Middle East edition of its “Top 30 Asset Management Companies” list for 2022.

The American business magazine ranks the Middle East-based companies based on the total value of their total assets as of December 2021, meaning all the fiduciary assets that the company invested on behalf of its clients including real estate and equity funds.

Asset management companies often act as intermediaries between the public and the financial markets, using their expertise to invest in the markets to maximize returns while minimizing risks for their clients who mostly invest in the stock markets through equity mutual funds, debt funds, exchange-traded funds, and private equity funds.

Forbes’s ranking suggests that the asset management sector in the Middle East has prospered despite the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis.

“Last year was a great year for asset management companies in the Middle East, thanks to the performance of the region’s stock exchanges, which have created over $1 trillion in wealth since the beginning of 2021,” Forbes said.

Given the good performance of the regional stock exchange, the Middle East’s top 30 asset management companies accumulated $316 billion in assets under management in 2021, up from $265 billion in 2020, the magazine argued, adding that 15 of the companies serve as subsidiaries of commercial banks.

But the distribution of these revenues varies across the region, with the Gulf countries being home to the largest asset management companies in the Middle East. 16 of the featured companies are from Saudi Arabia, while five of them are from the UAE. Meanwhile, Bahrain and Kuwait each have three entries on the list.

Wafa Gestion, which was founded in 1995, is Morocco’s sole representative in the ranking. Currently led by Reda Hilali, the firm is the largest investment manager in Morocco with a 25% market share, according to Forbes.

It is 66% owned by Attijariwafa Bank, one of Morocco’s largest financial institutions, and 34% by Amundi, a French asset management company. According to the American magazine, Wafa Gestion managed assets worth $13.4 billion in 2021, covering 94 funds and mandates in total.