Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
These are days seeing the end of the era of investment banking.
Of the five independent banks that existed at the start of this year, only two remain.
And even these two big building blocks - massive I-Bank structures have also decided not to exist as independent Investment Banks on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have finally concluded that there is no future in investment banking.
But for sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) the story may be different. Bahrain's $14 billion SWF Mumtalakat thinks that there is still value to be captured and developed despite the market's downturn and negative prospects.
For those with the right strategy, funding and insight, the tougher market conditions will offer up a wide range of investment opportunities, says Talal Al Zain, CEO of Mumtalakat, which has posted a net profit of BD245.8 million ($652 million) in its first 18 months of operation.
Mumtalakat says it would target a variety of sectors ranging from financial services to telecommunications and food, seeking primarily minority positions in its investments.
"The long bull run of the global financial markets has finally come to an end, changing many of the certainties that we had accepted for so long ... For those with the right strategy, funding and insight, the tougher market conditions will offer up a wide range of investment opportunities," Zain says.
Having been created in June 2006 to be an independent holding company for the government of Bahrain's non-oil and gas assets, Mumtalakat now has a total of 35 commercial enterprises within its portfolio.
Mumtalakat's assets include Bahrain Aluminium (Alba), Gulf Air, Bahrain Telecommunications Co (Batelco) and a 30 per cent stake in the McLaren Formula 1 motor racing team.
"As economies and markets slow around the world, we intend to execute upon investment strategies that will capture financial value over the long term," says Mumtalakat chairman Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa.
In August the fund closed a $500 million loan to help finance expansion. In May it is considering two acquisitions, one in the services sector in North America worth as much as $1 billion, and another in Asia.
The SWF's investment strategy is to enter into partnerships with local and international institutions targeting opportunities for long-term, sustainable financial returns.
From the outset, it has always been Mumtalakat's policy that it should operate international levels of corporate governance both within it and across its portfolio companies.
Mumtalakat was recently ranked joint first for transparency in the Gulf in a survey conducted by the independent think tank the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.
The company is looking to increase within five years the proportion of its investments outside Bahrain to about 50 per cent, from the current level of just two per cent.
The survey's findings demonstrate that its focus on corporate governance is not going unnoticed - and should dispel any lingering doubts on the part of foreign institutions about doing business with this particular Gulf investment agency.
"Transparency in everything we do also means that our intentions and investment objectives are clearly understood by outside audiences. As a commercially orientated investment company, this enables us to be far more efficient in selecting and executing upon growth opportunities as and when they arise," says Zain.
The SWF does not believe that the West or the East will block a player like Mumtalakat because there are so many investment opportunities.
And its objective in investing will be mostly minority investments, so it will usually not have control over companies that it invests in.
Longer term, Mumtalakat will target investments in the financial services, aluminium, tourism and real estate sectors.
In addition, it is "definitely interested" in the food sector, with efforts being made to identify investments that could help to boost supplies during current global shortages.
Only investments that contradict the country's Muslim values are off the portfolio for Mumtalakat.
Part of the SWF's strategy would see a sizeable proportion of Mumtalakat's investment done with hedge funds. The hope is that either by creating new jobs or providing dividends through planned share-offerings in some of Bahrain companies as Gulf Air and aluminium firm Alba, the Bahraini people will draw the benefit.
