An India focused fund managed by Global

Kuwait - 15 January 2015

Global Investment House  (Global) announced today that the Mayur Hedge Fund, a long short absolute return growth oriented fund with a net long bias, has reported 61% return for the year 2014, outperforming the benchmark (NIFTY) which returned only 31.4%.

The Mayur Hedge Fund is an India-focused product managed directly by Global which aims to achieve capital appreciation through investing predominantly in equity related instruments of Indian companies. The fund has the flexibility to take long and short positions on Indian securities. This fund structure enables it to achieve capital appreciation simultaneously mitigating downside risk.

Rajesh George, VP International Asset Management at Global stated, "We are pleased with the outstanding returns reported by the fund in 2014, thanks to the investment strategy and stock selection process. This fund was ranked as the second best performing Hedge fund for the Indian market among all funds reported by Eureka Hedge in June 2014."

The Asian, and in particular the Indian market, offers a compelling investment opportunity. The investment case for India is powerful; the country - which is home to a quarter of the world's population under the age of 25 has a positive demographic profile, an emerging middle class, good corporate governance and an economy that has a low reliance on foreign trade. The reforms expected to be implemented by the Indian government is expected to boost India's GDP growth and also create a very favorable environment for foreign investors.

India, which is part of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) conglomerate, is the third largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity and is projected to be approximately 30% of the size of the US economy by 2025. The growth dynamic in India is based on domestic consumption, services, high levels of investment and infrastructure spending.

India is now experiencing the positive impact of a 'baby boomer' generation comprised of people born in the 1980s supporting a much smaller proportion of older workers. This favorable demographic profile called the 'demographic dividend' is having a positive impact upon the Indian economy. In fact, India has one of the highest proportions of economically active citizens in the world and a population size of more than 1.2 billion people, 65% of whom are below 35 years of age.

The highly educated and skilled middle class in India is growing, earning more, spending more, saving more and setting the stage for a long term consumer-driven boom. Furthermore, there is a huge amount of wealth being created by entrepreneurs, many of whom control some of India's biggest companies. The Indian economy has been through a fundamental shift over the past 30 years, moving from an agricultural-based economy to one in which services account for more than 50% of GDP.

Mr. George concluded "India is the only BRIC country forecasted to have an increase in GDP growth rate for 2015. Since it imports more than 80% of its oil requirements; it is an economy which will highly benefit from a low oil price. Hence it becomes an ideal destination for investors seeking hedge against the downward trend in oil prices. It is a good diversifier for GCC residents whose investments are highly linked to oil prices"

 It is worth noting that the fund employs a bottom-up and fundamental approach. It invests in equities of well-managed, high quality companies that have the potential to grow at a robust rate. It is an excellent investment product providing investors a hedge against the downward trend in oil prices while capitalizing on the very strong internal and external growth narrative set to drive the Indian economy for the foreseeable future.

- Ends -

For further information:
Moustafa Zantout
Senior Vice President
Head of Marketing & Communications
Global Investment House
Tel: +965 2295 1615
Fax: +965 2295 1638
E-mail: mzantout@global.com.kw

© Press Release 2015