They came after the markets crashed in 2002, they returned in 2003, and, after another difficult investment year, management and affiliated fund managers from Mondial (Dubai) LLC, part of the Financial Partners International Group, prepare to meet their Dubai-based investing public.
"At the very least," says Cameron Knox, Chief Investment Officer of Financial Partners, "you can't accuse the Helicon Fund Managers of hiding behind the wall of distance".
Few Gulf-based investors get this type of opportunity, which is generally taken by fund managers spending marketing budgets rather than fund managers being prepared to be held to account. The fun and games kick off in Dubai today.
In case you miss it, I cornered two of the speakers from different ends of the planet tackling issues that could be seen as different ends of the time horizon.
Howard Smith, British, but with a global investment perspective, is a director with QIM Asset Management and a director of the Symphony Range of Funds.
Andrew McKay, director of Absolute Asset Management, is an Australian, and whilst he shares a global perspective he often views things differently, and it's not because he's upside down compared to Smith!
Smith's main theme relates to the logic of using balanced managed funds as a core component within any portfolio.
"There is no way the average investor could keep up with the balanced approach. They need to be far too fleet-of-foot" says Smith. To spell out the point, Smith outlines three areas of "opportunity" which he has exploited for his Symphony Balanced Funds during the current year.
Area one relates to the bond versus equity mix. Smith does not suggest that he can get the timing right every year, but is happy to boast about this year's result: "In May we had a zero bond weighting within our balanced funds, we upgraded to about 10 per cent and took a gain of about 25 per cent in capital value since then".
Not bad. However, his point is that the game is now over for bonds, and the weighting is now being reduced "from nine per cent of the overall portfolio towards seven per cent and then probably towards zero per cent". How easy is this to achieve for the average investor?
Area two relates to commercial property, which Smith had outlined as an "opportunity" in the 2003 seminar. "We focused mainly in the US and Europe, and have gained about 30 per cent on that end of the portfolio."
However, again, commercial property has had its day, and Smith's current approach is to sell.
This may well be an area that attracts a good deal of investor comment so I pushed Smith for a view on the residential property scene which Smith claims is taking an increasingly global pattern.
"About 70 per cent of people own their own homes in environments where they can," says Smith. Ultimately, though, "property is a rent substitute", says Smith.
If you are a buyer you need capital appreciation and any lending repaid from the rent if the property is going to "make money".
For tenants, who take no risk of capital loss, they are happy if they are only paying the interest equivalent of the value of the house.
Everyone wins in a rising market, but for Smith, "UK and Australia have not seen price rises for about nine months. Despite the press comments and sales spiels the reality is that prices aren't going up".
Having taken the plunge (rightly or wrongly) in the Dubai market, I naturally press for a view on what might be seen as more speculative markets. "Dubai/Romania aren't these cheap?" I enquire.
Smith promptly gets back to basics. "Returns need to reflect the inherent risk," he says, "so the reason you can get a £25,000 house in Romania is because they haven't sorted out their legal and political risk to the point where they can charge more.
"Of course, if they get this right, prices will rise and those that bought at £25,000 will make a bundle. The important thing is to understand the risk".
So, what about Dubai?, "I like what I see here, it is an interesting case study. However, all you have is a piece of paper from Nakheel; I have registered property supported by years of precedent and contract law for my place in England."
Correct, but only an academic point once we see the Land Law? Hope so!
Finally then to area three: Asia. Smith spoke about Asia generally in 2003. This year he will be more specific in leaning towards India and China. "People are talking about China and India as if they are up-and-coming.
"However, the population of 2.5 billion people is already here. It's not as if they have to start at Chapter One and have an Industrial Revolution. Twenty per cent of the Chinese have mobile phones, they can start at Chapter Six." No need to wait for evolution, according to Smith.
The significance to the fund manager? "There is no way that a balanced approach can be underweight in South East Asia. As China and India already represent more of global GDP than any other trading bloc, it would be folly to ignore the region," Smith concludes.
In contrast, MacKay will focus more on short-term stories. His talk will centre on oil, commodities and currencies.
Leading with the question "important or not" in respect of the oil price, this preview betrays McKay's opinion that "in real terms, the current oil price is not as important as in the 1970s/1980s", which sounds as if he is echoing Greenspan's recent comments.
The differentiator is his view that it takes "30 per cent less oil to produce one dollar of GDP, so it is clearly not as important".
However, there is a but. "But it's still a factor. Higher oil prices are a tax on economic growth. Each $10/barrel rise reduces growth by between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent." In short, the McKay message is "important, but still a negative factor, yet not as important as it was".
On commodities, McKay will drift back into The China story. Following on Smith's comments, "if it's right not to be short on China and India, it's right not to be short on base metals", says McKay.
Ultimately, it's down to your view on China's economic landing. Hard, and it hurts. McKay is going for the soft landing stating that Chinese demand will remain reasonable .
The one area where McKay's talk will raise the interests of expatriates is his view on the dollar. Always a topic of expat concern, especially during the last two years of unrecovered weakness.
This preview predicts no short term solace for dollar earners as McKay predicts the euro will rise towards 1.30; the sterling to rise towards 1.9; and the Australian dollar to rise towards 75 to 80. "Above these levels further rises are unlikely," says McKay.
A number of factors contribute to this view led by the increasing budget deficit and a weakening US economy.
Pushed on whether the rates had in fact stabilised or whether the US dollar had already achieved a "fair value", McKay's view is that "yes, it found a level, but a lower level is now due".
The writer is the managing director of Mondial (Dubai) LLC
