Emirates NBD Asset Management and BlackRock have announced two public funds for UAE retail clients: FundStar Emirates CLO AA Fund and Emirates Systematic Income and Growth Fund. The partnership, which started in spring 2025, reached USD 350 million in AUM during its first year and now expands from private markets for qualified investors to public income strategies for retail.
The two funds in brief
FundStar Emirates CLO AA Fund. The fund invests in CLOs — pools of collateralised loan obligations backed by senior secured loans to US and European companies. The average portfolio credit rating is AA, with no sub-investment-grade tranches. Income is floating-rate; the fund uses no leverage at fund level and offers daily liquidity. Emirates NBD Asset Management is the manager; BlackRock is sub-adviser. BlackRock states that its CLO team has over 24 years of track record and more than USD 40 billion under management across CLO strategies.
Emirates Systematic Income and Growth Fund. A systematic multi-asset strategy with a c.7% annual yield target after fees and quarterly distributions. Emirates NBD Asset Management runs the portfolio; BlackRock serves as investment adviser. The fund aims to deliver a smoother payout curve than a buy-and-hold equity or ETF strategy.
How it links to the 2025 partnership
In March 2025, Emirates NBD and BlackRock signed a memorandum of understanding and launched a joint investment platform — initially for private-markets products available only to qualified wealth clients. According to Fintech News UAE, first-year AUM reached USD 350 million. The current public-fund launch is phase two: comparable access extended to retail Emirates NBD customers.
Why CLO AA and systematic income
UAE investors typically concentrate in real estate and deposits. The two products address different needs:
- CLO AA. A floating-rate coupon reduces interest-rate sensitivity when central banks move. The collateral is senior secured loans with an average AA rating — no speculative tranches, no fund-level leverage. AA CLO strategies are historically used as a deposit substitute with more market sensitivity and a higher potential coupon.
- Systematic income. Quarterly distributions and a c.7% yield target offer a reference for the "passive-income" sleeve of a portfolio — one that can be compared with rental yield on Dubai real estate: for a similar income objective, the fund removes property management, insurance and exit-liquidity concerns.
Important: 7% is a target, not a guaranteed payout. Actual distributions depend on the market and the portfolio model.
Who these products are for
The funds target retail and wealth clients of Emirates NBD in the UAE. For individual investors — expats and nationals — they are a way to reach an institutional asset class (CLOs) and multi-asset systematic strategies without maintaining an offshore brokerage account.
For corporate clients that already run a UAE corporate bank account, including at Emirates NBD, the products can be useful treasury tools for managing free liquidity. Before adopting them, pass a standard suitability review with the manager and codify a policy for market instruments at company level.
What the managers said
Michail Samawi, Senior Executive Officer at Emirates NBD Asset Management, said the two funds are meant to broaden UAE clients' access to global investment opportunities and help them build income-oriented portfolios aligned with long-term financial goals.
Keith Saldanha, Head of Wealth and Global Product Solutions, MEA, at BlackRock, said wealth portfolios have room for both CLOs and systematic strategies, and that both firms intend to keep developing products that broaden the choice for regional investors.
Market context
The Gulf remains one of the fastest-growing wealth hubs globally, with the UAE concentrating a large share of that demand on the back of entrepreneurs and family-office principals moving in. BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has estimated that global alternative assets could reach around USD 30 trillion by the end of the decade; its own BlackRock Alternative Investments platform already exceeded USD 450 billion in 2025. For Emirates NBD, the joint platform is a way to localise this expertise and deliver it in a structure that UAE retail is used to.
What it means for a UAE investor
For an individual investor who already banks with Emirates NBD, both products merit time and a careful read of the fund documentation. A simple framing:
- CLO AA — for the portfolio sleeve where a floating-rate coupon and reduced interest-rate sensitivity matter.
- Systematic Income and Growth — for the sleeve where predictable periodic distributions matter, accepting market volatility in the fund NAV.
Neither product is risk-free. CLOs as a class are sensitive to the credit cycle — an average AA rating softens this but does not remove it. Systematic strategies with a c.7% target rely on active rebalancing; distributions may deviate from the target in some periods. Size the sleeve for each fund after a suitability conversation with the manager.
