Kuwait’s Global launches $1bn MENA fund

Global Investment House has launched Global Opportunistic Fund II, a $1 billion (€814 million) vehicle targeting pre-IPO and IPO opportunities in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia (MENA).
 
According to Shailesh Dash, senior vice president strategic investments group at Global, the IPO and pre-IPO market in the GCC region, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran and the MENA region currently enjoys improving macroeconomic conditions, significant liquidity and positive initiatives by the respective governments.
 
“Though there are significant numbers of IPOs planned across the target countries, the fund would target IPOs of stable, mature and profitable businesses,” said Dash in a statement.
 
The fund will also target “rapidly growing” companies with enterprise vales in excess of $100 million requiring expansion capital and a stock market listing.
 
According to Dash, the vehicle will focus on transactions with an average deal size of $20 million.

Global’s entire direct investment portfolio currently exceeds $750 million. The group’s executive vice president Omar El-Quqa was quoted in the press release as describing the group’s pipeline of deals as including investment opportunities within the telecommunication services, oil/gas/petrochemicals, banking, and mining sectors in Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan, and India.
 
Global’s debut IPO vehicle, the Global Opportunistic Fund, was launched last August with $550 million in commitments. According to the firm, the fund has already made a number of exits, including a ROI of over 200 percent in one transaction and 40 percent in another. To date, the debut fund has committed $413 million and returned almost $250 million.
 
In addition to its Kuwait head office, Global has offices in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Jordan, and has interests in financial institutions in Oman, Sudan, Palestine and Tunisia. Global currently manages assets under management in excess of $6.2 billion.