Private Equity Funds Move To The Fore In The Middle East

Originally published in MENA Fund Manager, Issue 6 (April 2010)

Below is a précis of an address by Mohamed Younes, CEO of the Concord Group to the Channel Islands Stock Exchange international business summit held on 11 September 2009, prepared by Advocate William Simpson of Ogier Guernsey, finance lawyers and fund administrators.

Private Equity in the Middle East is rapidly becoming the major regional industry primarily because of the unprecedented flow of funds, as a result of the high oil prices coupled with the repatriation of funds to the region by Arab investors. This trend will continue in the foreseeable future. The immediate impact was a massive increase in local investments resulting in spectacular price increases, which in turn created an overheated initial public offering (IPO) market. A natural consequence was the birth of a so-called private equity market. In fact, most of the deals were essentially pre-IPO funds who acquired existing companies,