Inside the Mind of the Modern Allocator: A Conversation With Hala Al-Fayez
The chief investment strategist at one of the Gulf's largest sovereign allocators on the rebuilding of duration, the limits of private markets, and AI as an investment process.
Hala Al-Fayez has spent two decades at the centre of one of the most influential pools of capital in the world. Her observations on portfolio construction in the current environment are characteristically pointed.
"Duration is being rewarded again," she said in a wide-ranging interview at her Abu Dhabi office. "For two years our marginal capital was going into short-end credit and dollar cash. The Fed pivot has changed that calculus structurally."
On private markets, her tone was measured. "Private equity returns over the next vintage will disappoint allocators conditioned by the prior cycle. Private credit is where we are still adding capital, but selectively, and not at the largest funds."
On the use of AI within investment processes, she was emphatic. "Within five years, every credible allocator will have AI in the centre of portfolio construction and risk. The firms that are pretending otherwise are simply behind."
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