Ace investor Mark Mobius plans a new venture in Dubai
Mark Mobius, whose name has been synonymous with investing in developing countries for a third of a century, isn’t planning to slow down even as he steps back from the firm that bears his name.
The 87-year-old money manager said he’s busier than ever as he looks to set up a new venture in Dubai.
The firm will be “involved in investment,” he said, declining to provide specifics because he said it’s still in the negotiating stage.
“It’ll be something quite exciting in emerging markets,” Mobius said in a Zoom interview from Bengaluru, a technology hub in India, one of the countries he said he’s most bullish on for the future.
Dubai, where Mobius has lived for the past three years, has emerged as a favored destination for investment banks, asset managers and hedge fund traders, who are drawn by its ease of doing business, tax-free status and allure as a global travel hub. It’s also a more friendly time zone for portfolio managers who have global investments spanning North America to Asia.
Mobius, as ever, is trotting the globe in search of listed companies to bet on, as well as opportunities in private equity, he said.
London-based Mobius Capital Partners LLP — which he co-founded in 2018 after three decades at Franklin Templeton Investments — is “all set and running well,” and it was time for him to move on, he said.
Starting in 1987 when investing in developing countries was still a relatively novel concept, Mobius helped to grow Franklin Templeton’s emerging-markets group to about $40 billion from $100 million.
Less than four months after leaving the firm, he set up his own asset-management company to invest in emerging and frontier markets.
