The Scoop
Abu Dhabi asset manager Lunate is leaning on a popular investing app as well as social media marketing to reach younger investors as it prepares to debut an exchange-traded fund tracking stocks in quantum computing — the first thematic ETF for the Gulf.
The firm has partnered with Abu Dhabi-backed Wio Bank to make the ETF available to traders in the UAE, and has tapped Emirati creative agency digitalfarm to promote it, a Lunate spokesperson told Semafor.
Lunate’s first thematic ETF, under the ticker QUANTM, will list in Abu Dhabi on the ADX on Sept. 22, tracking the Solactive Developed Quantum Computing Index, a basket of 25 companies working on quantum technologies which are listed in the US. The fund will expose investors to fast-growing newer entrants like hardware and cloud provider IonQ and quantum chip fabricator Rigetti, alongside Big Tech players Microsoft, Nvidia, and IBM.
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Kelsey’s view
The Millennial-friendly moves are unexpected from Lunate: The two-year-old firm, with $110 billion in assets under management, has so far hewed close to mainstream institutional investors. It counts Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ as its anchor client and most recently made headlines for taking a minority stake in hedge fund Brevan Howard.
But it has its sights set on expanding the breadth of financial products in Abu Dhabi, Sherif Salem, partner and head of public markets, told Semafor.
“A lot had to do with the ambitions of Abu Dhabi and to expand the financial products on offer within and coming from Abu Dhabi,” he said.
Know More
ETFs are so popular in the US they now outnumber publicly traded companies, but the product is a relative newcomer in the Gulf.
For Lunate, QUANTM will be the first in its new Boreas ETF range, created to capitalize on growing investor demand for specialized funds tied to long-term, structural themes and tap changing investor demographics. Some 45% of Gen Z and millennials globally began investing in early adulthood, compared with 15% of Gen X and baby boomers, according to a 2024 World Economic Forum survey.
Quantum computing was chosen because Lunate’s analysts believe there’s far more room for growth in the sector and would compete with only two other such ETFs, one trading in the US and the other in Europe, according to Salem.
While public markets represent a small fraction of Lunate’s assets under management (Lunate declined to disclose a specific figure), they are a venue for the firm to expand its reach. Lunate is also targeting institutional investors, which are expected to make up the bulk of the capital invested, but retail investors will be crucial to stimulate trade activity, according to Salem.
Notable
- ETFs have become an avenue for cross-border investing between the Gulf and China. Last year Dubai and Shenzhen signed an agreement to boost such investments, the Financial Times reported.