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By Bloomberg

Falcon Private Bank, the wealth manager owned by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, says European stocks have “years of gains” to come as the region rolls out its stimulus plan, while the U.S. bull run is almost over.

Markets in the euro zone may take a “short pause” before the influx of liquidity from the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing program prompts increases, David Pinkerton, the Zurich-based chief investment officer for Falcon, said Wednesday in an interview at Bloomberg’s Dubai offices.

European stocks rallied this year as the Frankfurt-based ECB started its program of large-scale asset purchases in March. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index has risen 14 percent this year, compared with a 1.5 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The Fed’s stimulus package helped the S&P 500 more than triple from its March 2009 low to a record on April 24.

“We’re at the later stages of the U.S. equity market run, while we’re at the early stages in Europe,” said Pinkerton, a former manager of AIG’s private equity portfolio and Falcon board member. “It’s a liquidity-driven rally that’s just getting started on the back of the QE they’ve just announced.”

The Frankfurt-based ECB envisages spending 1.1 trillion euros through September 2016 and reached its target of 60 billion euros ($67 billion) of bond purchases in April. Bank lending increased in March for the first time since 2012 and encouraging data from Germany to Spain point to a strengthening recovery even as the Greek crisis undermines confidence.

‘Liquidity Argument’

“We’re bullish on the shares because it’s a liquidity argument,” Pinkerton said. The stimulus “flows into capital markets first and whether it moves into the real economy to affect main street Europe is what everyone is waiting for.”

Investors are watching the ECB’s Governing Council, which meets in Frankfurt on Wednesday, to discuss emergency funding for Greek lenders. While the bank has increased the amount of liquidity on offer to Greek lenders, concerns are rising about the risks attached to the strategy.

“The whole Greek exit and the contagion of that to other participants in the EU” is a concern for investors, Pinkerton said, as well as the unrest in Ukraine and Yemen. “At the end of the day, the U.S. market and the European markets are too big for these events to have a permanent affect on. But for the short term they do create a lot of anxiety.”