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Investcorp

Investcorp Overview

The late Nemir Kirdar, an Iraqi banker and financier, founded private equity and investment firm Investcorp in Bahrain’s capital of Manama in 1982.

Renowned as one of the founding fathers of the sector, the business, which had four other co-founders, had reportedly made him a billionaire by the time he died in 2020 at the age of 83.

Investcorp’s success is based on connecting investors in the Gulf to investment opportunities in the West.

Among the shareholders in Investcorp are reportedly a number of Middle Eastern ruling families and wealthy businesspeople from the region, while the UAE’s Mubadala reportedly has a 20 per cent stage in the firm.

The firm has invested in businesses including luxury goods brands Tiffany & Co. and Gucci, as well as convenience store chain Circle K.

Investcorp has 12 global offices across India, Asia, the US, Middle East and Europe.

Since 2015 it has rapidly expanded in Asia and the US in particular through diversification and acquisitions. These increased from $10 billion in assets under management to $25 billion in 2017 and more than $50 billion. It aims to double that to $100 billion in the longer term.

In November 2023, Investcorp floated 32.85 per cent of its Investcorp Capital Plc investment vehicle on Abu Dhabi’s stock exchange, raising $450 million.

The entire group’s portfolio of assets are held in six divisions, in real estate and infrastructure investment, hedge funds, strategic capital, credit management and absolute return investment.

Investcorp News

Grocery business Mair Group listed on ADX this week. UAE IPOs raised over $6bn last year

ADX ripe for international investment, say asset managers

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange remains a sleeping giant for international investors despite the huge sums raised from recent ADX listings, speakers said this week at the emirate’s annual financial showcase. There have been 23 notable initial public offerings of UAE companies since the start of 2021 – 14 on the ADX and nine on […]

Investcorp Capital will help fund the $4.2bn redevelopment of JFK Airport in New York City

Investcorp Capital invests $280m in growth sectors

Bahrain’s Investcorp Capital has announced investments exceeded $280 million across various asset classes in the last six months. These potential growth sectors included real estate, infrastructure and corporate investments. The funding aligns with the company’s strategy to pay at least 8 percent dividends in semi-annual instalments, the company said in a bourse filing on Monday. […]

Investcorp's Saudi MD tells AGBI about the Bahrain investor's plans Video length: 03:54

Investcorp refocuses on inward GCC investment

Bahrain’s Investcorp is involved in investment-related initiatives worth $4 billion, the latest of which is a commercial partnership with Awaed, the first commission-free Saudi trading platform. After investing heavily in the US and Europe, it is now focusing more to GCC opportunities. AGBI spoke to Investcorp’s Saudi Arabia MD Mashaal AlJomaih in the video above.

Students in shared accommodation. According to one expert, international investors have put more money into student housing than any other US real estate asset

Investors size up Gulf student housing after US success

Gulf entities have invested billions of dollars in student housing in the United States over the past few years, and are now considering making the same play locally. Accommodation for university students has become a hot asset class amid demographic growth fueled by the millennial generation, which recently passed the baby boomers to become the […]

Investcorp owns and manages more than 16,500 beds across 25 student housing investments

Investcorp buys US student housing assets for $160m

Investcorp, Bahrain’s alternative asset manager, has acquired two student housing properties in the US for $160 million, as university enrolment numbers surge. The two properties, the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of Texas at Austin, have a combined 914 beds. The two universities are ranked among the top 10 public universities in […]

Dubai-based construction entrepreneur Riad Tawfiq Al Sadik must pay 85 percent of the legal costs incurred by Clyde & Co after his suit against the law firm was thrown out in April,

Global legal saga continues for Dubai entrepreneur

Riad Tawfiq Al Sadik, a construction entrepreneur based in Dubai, must pay 85 percent of the legal costs incurred by Clyde & Co after his suit against the law firm was thrown out in April, a UK court ruled this week, according to a report from City AM. The case stemmed from Al Sadik’s staggering […]

50 million Alef shares changed hands, making it the most active stock on Abu Dhabi’s bourse on Wednesday

Alef Education shares drop 13% on first day

Shares in Alef Education fell 12.6 percent after the company’s Abu Dhabi bourse debut on Wednesday. The education technology company had raised AED1.9 billion ($515 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) that was 39 times over-subscribed. The IPO was priced at AED1.35 ($0.37) a share, the upper limit of its range. However Alef’s shares […]

Alef IPO edtech education technology

Alef Education IPO 39 times oversubscribed

Orders totalling more than $20 billion were placed at the IPO of Abu Dhabi’s Alef Education this week, leaving it 39 times over-subscribed.  The company raised AED1.9 billion ($515 million) in its initial public offering, the company said on Thursday. It will become the first education technology business to list on a UAE stock exchange. […]

An investor at the Dubai International Financial Market. The share prices of four of the 20 Gulf companies that listed since early 2023 have at least doubled

Stock prices of Gulf companies surge after IPOs

Most Gulf companies that completed initial public offerings (IPOs) recently have seen their market capitalisation soar, with issuers pricing flotations adroitly to bolster investor demand for their stocks after listing. From the start of 2023 there have been 20 Gulf IPOs that raised at least $100 million. Combined, these sold $11.2 billion of shares. As […]

The National Stock Exchange in Mumbai, India. Bahrain's Investcorp is investing in technology and IT services companies worldwide

Investcorp buys Indian tech company for $120m  

Bahrain’s alternative asset manager, Investcorp, is to acquire the digital technology business of India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) for $120 million. NSEIT provides advanced digital transformation and cybersecurity services to global customers in capital markets, insurance and banking in India, North America and the Middle East. The services include digital engineering, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud services […]