Swiss asset managers must now plant their flags in the sand in Abu Dhabi and Dubai!

---

What a great meeting! On Tuesday, 26.08.2025, Simon Davies from Aucta Group, Abu Dhabi, invited us to the «Hotel Motel One» in Zurich. I met Simon at the previous Fundplat «The Desert Talks» Summit in Dubai: he is a fascinating personality. I informed my colleagues Patrick Kern, Kern Capital Advisors, Zurich, and Andreas Wäschle, Fund Academy AG, Zurich, and they came along straight away. Of course, we took a souvenir photo.

Simon has invited around 10 selected financial experts from Zurich to an information exchange on the hotel terrace. He knows the financial markets in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Riyadh, etc. – and, of course, those in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Dublin – inside out. His great speciality is funds: set-up, management, distribution, in other words, the entire ecosystem of the fund industry.

We bombarded Simon with questions. He answered them all patiently and with great expertise. This meeting also made it clear to me that Zurich professionals have enormous interest in the financial centres of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The fund business is still in its «baby shoes» there, but things will look very different in three years‘ time! Thomas J. Caduff, CEO, Fundplat LLC

Zurich, 26.08.2025