KUWAIT: Watani Investment Company KSCC (NBK Capital) won the "Regional Equities Manager of the year 2016" from Global Investor Middle East. According to Global ISF, NBK CAPITAL MENA AM outperformed most managed equities during the judging period. This is due to mainly the unique design of their products that constantly meet their clients' shifting requirements.

The NBK Gulf Equity Fund returned -22.92% net of fees while the regional markets, as measured by the S&P GCC Composite Large Mid Cap Index, returned -23.48%. The NBK Qatar Equity Fund returned -16.68% net of fees, beating its benchmark, which returned -16.85%. The NBK Kuwait Equity Fund returned -11.30% net of fees, in-line with its benchmark. The SMA mandates portfolios recorded returns -23.02% net of fees with an alpha of 0.44%.

Commenting on this achievement, CEO of NBK Capital, Faisal Al-Hamad, said, "NBK Capital takes pride in continuously being nominated and delivering the highest standards of products and services to our clients and investors". Mr Al-Hamad also added "Year after year, the MENA Asset Management Team has delivered strong relative performance to our investors.

The Team has also succeeded to innovate and offer new investment solutions that best fit our clients' needs. The next challenge for the team is to deliver an even stronger performance for our equity investors and develop the platform and track record for the Fixed-Income line of business." NBK Capital wide product offerings, best practices in investment and risk management processes has a clear edge over regional peers to deliver the best asset management solutions.