Investcorp eyes regional luxury firms

Bahrain's Investcorp said yesterday it planned to buy stakes in homegrown Middle Eastern luxury goods companies as part of a wider plan to invest $650 million (Dh2.38 billion) in the region in the next two years.

Investcorp, previously an investor in high-end brands Gucci and Tiffany, is in talks with families and businesses in the Gulf, North Africa and Turkey, said Azmat Taufique, Co-head of the bank's Gulf Growth Capital business.

New investments under its $1bn Gulf Opportunity Fund would strive to mirror a 70 per cent acquisition last year of the Middle East's largest gold and jewellery maker, L'Azurde, which Investcorp made along with partners, Taufique said. "We are looking at other businesses in the region with similar dynamics, not necessarily jewellery but broadly in mass luxury," Taufique said, adding he estimated the mass luxury market would grow about 10 per cent a year in the region.