The Abraaj saga: What impact will the decline of the region's best-known private equity fund manager have on the industry? | ZAWYA MENA Edition

The Abraaj saga: What impact will the decline of the region's best-known private equity fund manager have on the industry? | ZAWYA MENA Edition:

The downfall of the Middle East’s biggest private equity fund this year will most likely have a negative impact on investment flowing into the region’s private equity funds over the coming years, according to experts.

“Definitely, this one is going to remain for the next three, four, or five years… But there are other players. It is not one industry, one player,” Anthony Hobeika, the chief executive officer of Dubai-based MENA Research Partners told Zawya on the sidelines of the Super Return Middle East conference. The conference, held in Abu Dhabi last week, is part of an international series discussing regional trends in the private equity and venture capital markets.

Abraaj’s story started 24 years ago, when an ambitious Pakistani businessman, Arif Naqvi, came to Dubai in the early 1990s with a positive outlook on emerging markets. He set up the Abraaj Group in 2002, and for many years it was the Middle East’s biggest and most respected private equity fund manager until its collapse earlier this year, which followed allegations that it had misused investor’s funds.