Muddassar Malik, co-founder, CEO and Executive Vice Chairman of BMA Funds, was invited to represent Pakistan and emerging markets at Euromoney's flagship annual conference, the "Global Borrowers and Investor Forum", held in London last week. The Euromoney conference attracts the biggest names in the investment world and this year the focus was on the continuing Eurozone crisis which started in periphery countries and is now starting to spread to the core.
Speaking at the conference, Malik said "five percent of the worst news about Pakistan is projected about 95 percent of the time. This bubble of pessimism has been growing larger and larger and this creates a big opportunity." Malik elaborated "though Europe is one of our largest trading partners, the Pakistan story is premised on favourable demographics and strong domestic demand. This fact is borne out by the resilience of Pakistan's domestic market in 2012 where the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Composite Index) for Pakistan is up 13 percent against the MSCI emerging markets and MSCI Europe which are down three percent and seven percent respectively."
Malik oversees the BMA Pakistan Opportunities Fund, which is one of the few open end, USD denominated equity funds that allow foreign investors to take exposure in Pakistani capital markets. The fund is up 17 percent in 2012 making it amongst the highest returning hedge funds across the globe.-PR