Chief Investment Officer, Managing Director
Commercial Bank Asset Management, Qatar
Total years of experience :24 years, 10 Months
• Leading the reactivation of Commercial Bank’s fund management arm as the top CBAM executive.
• Re-established the company’s strategy & product spectrum targeting both public and private asset classes.
• Setting up the investment & operations teams from scratch, writing relevant policies and procedures, leading the upgrade of the IT structure for investment funds, preparing the company’s budget and presenting to the Board, establishing and maintaining excellent relationships with the Regulator (QFCRA), attending Board meetings.
• Launching Qatar’s first local money market & same-day settlement investment fund (T+0) in 4Q23 by aligning all major functions of Commercial Bank for the project (Corporate Banking, Premium Banking, Asset & Wealth Management, Treasury, Branch Network, IT, Operations, Legal, Compliance) as well as the Custodian and the Regulator. Established the asset allocation strategy of the fund that will be actively managed by the CBAM.
• The investment mandate includes a MENA Equity/Fixed Income Fund, a Private Debt/ Equity Fund to be actively managed by CBAM, under the supervision of Dr. Aksoy.
• Building and driving the strategy for ESG investment products; researching ESG themes and trends across industries, sectors and geographies.
• Lead the launch of $50mn Private Equity/Credit/Real Estate Fund of Funds (FoF) with all aspects. Created a manager selection model based on both qualitative and quantitative factors, screened +100 funds with that model and established the final FoF portfolio utilizing international asset allocation techniques. Arranged side letters and a profit swap based wrapper structure for Sharia compliance.
• Lead the initiation, origination, execution and exit readiness for international & local deals, totally amounting to +$300mn in terms of equity/credit participation (Sectors: Healthcare, technology, hospitality, tech retail).
• Built and maintained relations with the Private Equity networks to obtain access to new opportunities.
• Supported the top management & Treasury team on international macroeconomics and investment strategies.
• Prepared five different customer portfolios composed of public investment instruments (equities, fixed income, commodities) with varying risk appetite from ultra-low risk to high growth. Portfolio constriction and optimisation is done by Markowitz Mean-Variance Model without any subjectivity.
• Covered equities in the GCC and prepared equity strategy reports.
• On top of the equity strategy responsibilities, initiated the Liquidity Provisioning/Market Making business for Qatari stocks and participated in all aspects of the project. Prepared the individual pricing models for each target company incorporating market and stock price volatility & trading risks. Appointed as the Market Risk Committee member and participated in the determination of the risk limits.
• Awarded the Employee of the Month twice in 2019 & 2020, which is exceptional at QNB.
• As per an invitation from the CFA Institute, coached HBKU team for the CFA’s equity research competition. The team ranked 2nd in the competition out of 5 universities attending the contest.
• Lead the investment management team composed of research analysts, traders and junior portfolio managers. Directly reported to the CEO and headed the Investment Committee of the company. Established asset allocation, fixed income and equity strategies for the funds under management as well as picked the individual securities for each managed fund. Occasionally participated in KFH Turkey’s ALCO meetings and shared views on the global, GCC and Turkish investment outlook & strategies.
• Managed USD350mn of multi-asset funds invested in Turkish and emerging markets fixed income and equities: The MENA Fixed Income/Sukuk USD Fund, two equity-fixed income pension funds, 2 mutual funds including a T+0 cash management fund and 2 hedge funds with a focus on MENA & Turkish assets.
• Covered the major MENA (Qatari, Kuwaiti, UAE and Saudi Arabian) & Turkish stocks as well as fixed income. Both corporate fixed income and stock selection processes were based on fundamental research including company visits, financial modelling and valuations.
• Participated in the marketing efforts and maintained close relations with the existing institutional clients.
Major Achievements:
• Funds under management (MENA Fixed Income/Sukuk USD Fund, Turkish Equity-Fixed Income Pension Fund, Turkish Fixed Income Pension Fund, Turkish Flexible Mutual Hedge Fund, and T+0 Cash Management Fund) ranked 7 times as Turkey’s top-yielding funds within their categories during 2015-1H2018. After a 5% return in 2016 in USD terms, the MENA Fixed Income/Sukuk USD Fund yielded 5.3%, beating S&P MENA Bond/Sukuk Index return of 3.4%. The Fund yielded +1.4% during Jan-Jun’18, while the S&P MENA Bond/Sukuk Index recorded a 2.2% loss.
• Assets under management rose by USD200mn just in 1.5 years, due to the strong investment management performance. At end-2017, management of an USD120mn fund received from an existing client, after the funds we manage for them ranked as the top-yielding funds in 2016 and 2017. This 120mn fund ranked as the top performer within its category by 1H2018.
• Designed the first inflation-linked sukuks in Turkey and KFH Turkey issued them in 2016 & 2017.
• As per consultancy projects, advised a client for his exit from an USD250mn shopping mall.
• Covered the EMEA Emerging Markets (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia and Turkey).
• Established fixed income and equity portfolio strategies for the portfolio managers.
• Participated actively in the marketing efforts of the company.
• Worked in two M&A projects including the acquisition of Arma Asset Management by Rhea.
Major Achievements:
• Established & managed Rhea Fundamental Equity Growth Portfolio. During Mar 2012 - Mar 2013, the portfolio returned 49%, 14% above the ISE-100 index with no negative performance on a monthly basis.
• Acted as the Direct Investments Portfolio Director for the sister company, Rhea Venture Capital.
• Managed the investment advisory team; established fixed income & equity market strategies for clients.
• Attended the company’s investment committee meetings as a committee member who was responsible for asset allocation, equity market strategy and stock picking. The committee runs Halkbank’s USD600mn of funds.
Major Achievements:
• Prepared an advisory report to Halkbank’s Board, regarding a possible exit from DemirHalkBank-Holland, one of Halkbank’s key overseas assets.
• Covered the EMEA Emerging Markets.
Major Achievements:
• Shorting recommended for all the emerging market banking stocks in Sep’07, due to the concerns that US sub-prime problems might ignite a global banking crisis, which happened later in 2008.
• At the end of 2008, Turkish banks were rated as the top picks in the region due to their exceptional asset quality, which did not match with their battered valuations. In 2009, Turkish banks outperformed CEE banks 39% on average, recording an average net return of 111%. Top-pick Garanti shares yielded 147%, outperforming CEE peers by 63%.
• Advised a steel pipe producer for its USD220mn hot rolled plant investment.
European & Emerging Markets
•Covered the major banks in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Benelux, and in the Emerging Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia and Turkey) as the buy-side equity analyst.
Major Achievements:
•Top picks Bank of Ireland, Lloyds TSB, and Banco Santander recorded respective returns of 12%, 12% and 15% in Euro terms, during Sep’06 - April’07. Bank of Cyprus rose by 34% during Nov’06 - April’07.
•After Dr. Aksoy’s start, Turkish banking stocks became the largest holding of Tenax, tripling the Fund’s average position size, thanks to a 141% return during
• Covered the major banks in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Benelux, and in the Emerging Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia and Turkey) as the buy-side equity analyst.
Major Achievements:
• Top picks Bank of Ireland, Lloyds TSB, and Banco Santander recorded respective returns of 12%, 12% and 15% in Euro terms, during Sep’06 - April’07. Bank of Cyprus rose by 34% during Nov’06 - April’07.
• After Dr. Aksoy’s start, Turkish banking stocks became the largest holding of Tenax, tripling the Fund’s average position size, thanks to a 141% return during Sep’06 - May’07.
Major Achievements:
•The first of the two analysts downgrading Turkish Banks to SELL due to an expectation for extensive asset quality deterioration, based on a non-performing loan (NPL) model, developed for the listed banks as well as the sector. After the report, Turkish Banking Board initiated an extensive audit on Turkish Banks to assess their real asset quality. Following the audit, Turkish Banking Sector’s NPL ratio was corrected as 25% vs. previously reported 6%. Depressed by asset quality concerns, Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) Banking Sector Index declined by 48% in USD terms during Jan 02-Dec’03, underperforming the ISE-100 by 17%.
•The sole analyst issued a controversial SELL recommendation to Yapi Kredi Bank (YKB, Turkey) in 2002, following the bank’s merger decision with its problematic sister bank. During June’02-June’03 YKB shares -one of the three most liquid stocks in ISE at that time- underperformed the market by 53%.
• Covered banks, consumer durables, telecommunications and metal & mining sectors.
Major Achievements:
• Contributed to Isdemir’s (Turkey’s largest long steel producer) privatisation advisory project.
• Taking a personal initiative, relocated all research publishing and posting tasks to London & New York (from Istanbul/Turkey), thereby caused a substantial cuts in research distribution costs.
• Doctorate Thesis Subject: “International Investment Portfolio Diversification (Asset Allocation)”
Thesis Subject: “An Analysis of Co-Integration Relations among Banking Stocks”.
Thesis Subject: “Portfolio Analysis”. The thesis received the top grade, which is exceptional in ITU’s history.
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