What do you say to an investor who has just seen a significant chunk of his equity investment drain away this year? “It’s true that the best time to invest in the market is the worst time to raise funds,” said Joe Kawkabani, head of equity asset management at Algebra Capital, which recently launched a new fund with Franklin Templeton Investments. Only a sixth of the funds tracked by Zawya are in the green this year, with an overwhelming majority sinking in red ink. Yet the appetite of investment fund managers to source new funding has not disappeared. In November 2008, Holland’s ING Investment Bank launched ING Invest Middle East and North Africa Fund, at a time when some of the region’s most liquid markets were down by more than 60 percent. “We aim to have assets under management of between $500 million and $1 billion,” said Fadi Al Said,
