Saturday 3 July 2021

UK academic to release a book on #UAE’s Abraaj Group and its founder Arif Naqvi | Banking – Gulf News

UK academic to release a book on UAE’s Abraaj Group and its founder Arif Naqvi | Banking – Gulf News

A UK based academic and professor of human rights has written a book on UAE based private equity firm Abraaj Group and its founder Arif Naqvi.

The Pakistan-born businessman who is currently based in London is facing extradition to the US on 16 counts of fraud and related money laundering alleged to have been committed between 2014 and 2018.

The new book “The Life and Death of the Abraaj Group: Arif Naqvi, a key man or the fall guy”, by professor Brian Brivati, who is currently a visiting professor at the Kingston University explores the meteoric rise and equally spectacular fall of Abraaj Group and the international potential political intrigue that caused its ultimate downfall.

The book is published by the London-based Biteback Publishing is scheduled to be out for sale on July 20.

The Abraaj Group was just shy of $14 billion under management by 2017; they were on the threshold of closing a new fund that would invest $6 billion into these emerging markets.

Former #Saudi Banker AlMedaini Is Named Acting CEO of Debt Office - Bloomberg

Former Saudi Banker AlMedaini Is Named Acting CEO of Debt Office - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s National Debt Management Center, responsible for managing the kingdom’s sovereign borrowing, named Hani AlMedaini its acting chief executive officer.

AlMedaini, former head of the investment division at Saudi British Bank, will succeed Fahad AlSaif, who joined the sovereign wealth fund to become chief of corporate finance and a member of its management committee. AlMedaini’s appointment is effective on July 1, according to a statement Saturday.

AlMedaini, who was also previously a money-market and fixed-income dealer at Samba Financial Group, joined the debt office in September 2019 as head of portfolio management and became its acting deputy CEO last March.

Saudi Arabia set up the debt management office after oil prices collapsed in 2015 to tap foreign markets and plug a budget deficit caused by lower energy revenue.


Saudi Arabia’s fiscal shortfall narrowed to the lowest level in two years in the first quarter. It was funded entirely by domestic and external borrowing, without withdrawing from reserves, according to the Finance Ministry.