Brevan Howard has grown its Abu Dhabi operation to 150 employees just two years after opening in the emirate, founder Alan Howard told delegates at Abu Dhabi Finance Week on Monday – signalling the firm’s deepening commitment to the region, according to a report by Reuters.

Howard said the macro and alternatives manager had effectively outgrown its current footprint in ADGM. “We’ve run out [of space] and have a wait-list of people that want to come here, so we’re going to need to take more,” he noted. Brevan Howard launched its Abu Dhabi office in 2023 with just five staff.

The rapid scale-up comes after Abu Dhabi’s Lunate acquired a minority stake in the firm in August. The partners are building a new investment platform in the emirate, seeded with $2bn from Lunate and expected to raise additional capital from regional and global allocators.

Howard also emphasised Brevan Howard’s evolution beyond macro trading into a broader alternatives platform, highlighting the firm’s growing interests in areas such as digital-asset infrastructure.