Stamford Advocate – Last month, Eric Meyer was at a hedge fund conference in Dubai, speaking to a room filled with asset managers — about half from the United States and a good number from lower Fairfield County.
“What is your strategy in the Middle East?” Meyer asked the audience rhetorically.
It’s a logical query, considering that the Middle East is estimated to be a $250 billion to $500 billion investment market — and virtually untapped by the burgeoning American hedge fund community.
Meyer wasn’t surprised that, despite the liquidity in the Middle East, driven primarily by high oil prices, American and European hedge funds don’t have a go-to strategy for the region.
The reason: Accessing the Islamic investor market is a formidable challenge.
No one knows that better than Meyer, who has spent the past five years traveling from his New Canaan office to the Middle East and Europe, laboring with Islamic Shariah scholars, as well as Western financial and legal experts, to achieve what many thought impossible — creating risk management tools that enable observant Islamic investors to participate in an alternative investment world.
In a pioneering effort, Meyer’s New Canaan firm, Shariah Capital, a division of Meyer Fund Management, has developed Shariah-compliant alternative investment products, as well as the first Shariah-compliant fund of funds.
