A business forum discussion held for Capital Club members and guests

Dubai - 25 April 2011: Capital Club Dubai, the region's premier private business club and a member of the ENSHAA group of companies hosted Guy Fraser-Sampson, Private Equity and Investment Strategy Expert to give his personal view on 'Private Equity; Where to we go from here?', to the club's members and guests on Thursday 13th April.

Fraser-Sampson, one of CASS Business School's investment experts gave an eye-openingly frank account of the financial crisis, current economic environments and his views on the future of investments before opening the floor to audience questions and discussions.

Fraser-Sampson drew predominantly on the state of both the US and UK economies to highlight the severity of current debt; 'The US dollar has lost 1/6 of the purchasing power it had eleven years ago, US gross public debt is close to 100%, and this is not including hidden debt. Last time this happened was during the Second World War', he said. Similarly the UK has the biggest budget debt in history; the equivalent of £37,250 per person.

'How long can this go on for?' asked Fraser- Sampson, 'What can a government do when  drowning in debt?'  Economic growth, providing it is 3% above inflation, is the ideal solution but unlikely to happen. Default, implicit default and simply lying about figures are other methods that have been previously practiced, but are unsatisfactory ones. Equally printing more money has, historically never worked. 'Collapse of confidence in paper money is contagious and can lead to complete lack of confidence in all forms of financial instruments.  said Fraser- Sampson, alluding to a 'Weimar Republic scenario'.

Moving on to discuss assets, Fraser-Sampson explained that people may increasingly move over to real assets; gold, silver, commodities. 'Wealth Management has changed. Right now the priority is not to grow your clients' wealth, but to protect it', he said. You must also draw a distinction between long and short term capital. Gold, for example, is a good long term bet but in the short term can be very volatile.

So what will we see along the way? Fraser-Sampson suggested very high rates of taxation and exchange control. 'Restriction on the movement of capital is the logical step if currencies collapse', he said, 'and if things get desperate pension funds could be taken over by governments, as has already happened in Ireland.  You need to think about where you have custody of your assets. Many assets are being moved out of Europe for this reason, so things are subject to other countries' jurisdiction', he said, 'individuals and institutions may look to move around the world to make sure they are always one step ahead of the next dollar to fall'.

'We are living in an artificial world, and you can't buck simple economics forever'.  When asked if he honestly thought that some of the disturbing solutions he suggested in terms of debt recovery would really happen, Fraser-Sampson said, 'I am not saying any of this is going to happen, but the probability of it happening has increased dramatically. These are not hypothetical possibilities, they are real ones'.

-Ends-

About The Capital Club:
The Capital Club is exclusively designed to meet the demands of those among the top echelons of business, finance and government in the region, in other words those high flyers who are powering the region's growth and turning Dubai into the business hub of the Middle East.

The Capital Club is Dubai's premier private business club offering an elegant and welcoming ambience in which to mix and meet, to exchange ideas and to entertain guests. The Club is committed to the highest levels of comfort and cuisine, exceptional events and an unmatched level of personal service, at home and abroad.

The leading cities of the world have outstanding private clubs where leaders in business and government meet and entertain. Now Dubai has an exclusive Club that compares with the best.

The Capital Club is owned by Capital Club Limited, a single-purpose company registered under the DIFC.

The major shareholder of the company is Signature Clubs International, which is responsible for the development and operation of the Club.

About Guy Fraser-Sampson:
As well as creating and teaching various post-graduate courses at Cass Business School, Fraser-Sampson performs consultancy assignments around the world for both investors and investment managers. He is the author of various books on finance and investment including Private Equity as an asset class and (recently published) Alternative Assets: investments for a post-crisis world. He previously ran an international Fund of Funds for several years, after serving as Investment Controller with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.  

For further information or queries please contact:
Laetitia Dennis
SAHARA Communications
Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971 4 3298996
Fax: +971 4 3298995
Cell: +971 56 7242154
Email: laetitia@saharagcc.com
www.saharagcc.com

© Press Release 2011