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Focus on investments in areas of government and strategic priorities, Hazem Ben-Gacem, founder and CEO of Abu Dhabi-based BlueFive Capital, recommends. Food security, defense, infrastructure, automation and robotics are among those categories, he said.
Investments that solve problems and align with national interests are some of the most appealing in the current environment, according to a multi-decade veteran of global private markets.
Smart money in the Middle East is focused on government and strategic priorities, as well as finding solutions in those areas, because "that actually is exactly what those sovereign groups are looking for, and for that capital is available," according to Hazem Ben-Gacem, founder and CEO of Abu Dhabi-based investment firm BlueFive Capital.
"My recommendation is: don't go with a fund, go with a solution, and how you can play a very important part in that solution with these national priorities – food security, defense and infrastructure," Ben-Gacem told CNBC at the SuperReturn Asia conference in Singapore. He added that automation and robotics were also key areas.
BlueFive, which launched in November 2024 and had $15 billion in assets under management as of June 30, earlier this month closed a deal for a 30% stake in supercar producer Bugatti Rimac from Porsche. In July it co-led a funding round for Kling AI, a China-based AI video generation company, which valued Kling at $18 billion.
Ben-Gacem also said that geopolitics is increasingly becoming a vital factor to consider as investors look for areas to put their money.
"More and more today, geopolitics is probably a bigger variable in your returns, particularly in the parts of the world which we're dealing with: Middle East, Europe, Asia, China," he said. "The geopolitics are such that every single assumption you can have in the use case can very much fall apart."
Focus on investments in areas of government and strategic priorities, Hazem Ben-Gacem, founder and CEO of Abu Dhabi-based BlueFive Capital, recommends.