HBG Holdings, a Dubai-based investment firm that focuses on private equity and real estate, has acquired a 10 percent stake valued at $9.7 million (€6.8 million) in Muscat Finance (MFC), making the firm one of the largest shareholders of the Oman-based non-banking finance company.
Zulfi Hydari, managing director of HBG Holdings, will get a seat on MFC’s board of directors, including the executive committee. HBG’s stakeholders include the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia.
According to a statement from the firm, Oman’s non-banking financial sector has experienced major growth and the firm plans to continue targeting investments in the financial sector in general.
The firm plans to invest more than $2 billion in its current investment cycle and is evaluating a number of transactions in the region. HBG launched a $200 million investment vehicle in February 2007 that focuses on the Middle East and south Asia.
HBG, established in 2004, focuses on investments in the Middle East and south Asia. In March, HBG hired banking veteran Richard Stockdale as a senior vice president and chief financial officer. Stockdale joined the firm after serving as CEO of a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB Bank Group.
The firm is headed up by Chairman Abdallah Al-Moualimi, who served in numerous Saudi government offices, including as a board member of The National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia. HBG’s chief executive officer, Imtiaz Hydari, has been a player in Middle Eastern private equity for about 30 years. He is co-founder of Abraaj Capital and participated in Abraaj Capital’s leveraged buyout of Aramex International in 2002.
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