When we visited friends and clients in Kuwait last November, we noted increased sophistication of institutional and sovereign wealth investors around private capital. That trend continues. 

As with Oman, Kuwait has a sovereign wealth fund, though significantly larger at $1 trillion, making it the fifth largest in the world. Like the OIA, the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) is committed to increasing exposure to private markets in the country. KIA’s Future Generations Fund, like Oman’s, looks for alternative investments that include private capital, real estate and infrastructure. These asset classes remain the most developed in alts. 

While experienced investors historically allocated to high octane credit, in the current environment, funds here and in MENA, generally, are slowly, steadily aligning themselves with private credit and its variants. Worries of an “overcrowded market” have some preferring to deploy with managers having a more tactical approach within the wider credit markets.