Investcorp lines up diverse strategies for east and west 

Reuters/Mike Blake

• Further listing in Gulf region
• GCC markets ‘vibrant’
• ‘Healthy’ M&A in west

Multibillion-dollar asset manager Investcorp Capital is planning listing activity from its companies in the east in the next six months, but sees more profit in mergers and acquisitions in the west.

The Bahrain-based company, which was listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange in November, on Monday reported income of $34 million for the first half of the financial year ending December 31, 2023, and a gross operating income of $44 million.

In December, Investcorp successfully listed its Indonesian franchisee of the Mothercare brand, the alternative investment company’s first IPO on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and the 26th in its history.

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Hazem Ben-Gacem, co-chief executive officer of Investcorp, told a media briefing the company was particularly interested in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand and said he expected a further listing from the Gulf region.

“We have some plans for further IPOs of some of our portfolio businesses here in the Gulf and that is as the capital markets in the GCC continue to be quite vibrant,” he said.

“I hope that in the next six to 12 months we would be in a position to do a further listing of one of our portfolio companies.”

Investcorp has around 50 private equity investments spread between the US and Europe (roughly 80 percent) and 20 percent business in the Middle East, India and other parts of Asia.

Investcorp

On the real estate front, the company has roughly 100 investments across predominantly multi-family homes, student housing, warehousing and logistics in the UK and parts of Europe and to a lesser extent India and the Middle East.

In an interview with AGBI earlier this month, Ben-Gacem revealed that the company is looking at investment opportunities in airports and seaports across the world as it seeks to double the infrastructure assets in its portfolio to $10 billion by the end of the decade.

Investcorp completed a 50 percent acquisition of New York-based Corsair Capital’s infrastructure business, which includes the airport operator Vantage, in December.

Ben-Gacem said he did not expect any listings activity in the Americas or Europe. However, he added that interest remained in the private markets in both, “particularly trade sales and sales to other private equity investors, that market is picking up quite nicely on the back of the return of the debt market”.

“We do see a healthy trade in M and A (mergers and acquisitions) transactions in the west and perhaps a bit more public market transactions in the east,” he said.

He added that there are plans to list a business the company owns in China on the Hong Kong exchange, although he explained they are taking a “wait and see” stance on that one.

“As you know, the Hong Kong long market is still perhaps in a state of health which is not much different from where Europe is today,” he said.

The Investcorp board declared an interim dividend of 0.100 dirhams per share, which represents a 9.6 percent annualised dividend yield based on a current trading price of 2.09 dirhams per share.