Investcorp Veteran Is Said to Plan $1 Billion #AbuDhabi Fund - Bloomberg

Investcorp Veteran Is Said to Plan $1 Billion Abu Dhabi Fund - Bloomberg

The former co-chief executive officer of the Middle East’s top alternative asset manager is setting up a $1 billion permanent capital fund to buy stakes in financial services firms across the Global South, according to people familiar with the matter.

Hazem Ben-Gacem, who stepped down as co-chief executive officer of Investcorp Holdings in September, is in talks with investors across the US, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East to raise funds for BlueFive Capital, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

The Abu Dhabi-based vehicle will invest in insurance, private wealth and public-market brokerage firms, according to the people. The veteran deal-maker is leaning on a network of contacts that he built over three decades at Investcorp, before leaving as part of a sweeping reshuffle.

Ben-Gacem also plans to secure founding shareholders for BlueFive and potentially raise infrastructure and private equity funds in the future, the people said. That’s part of a five-year target of transforming BlueFive into a $25 billion entity, including assets of the firms it acquires, they said.

A spokesperson for Ben-Gacem declined to comment.

BlueFive will initially look to invest across Southeast Asia and Gulf Cooperation Council nations — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain — the people said. It will later look to invest in Latin America to create a financial services firm operating across the Global South, they said.

The fund is the latest to try and capitalize on rising investor interest in the Middle East and its growing political and trade ties across Latin America and Asia. As nations including Saudi Arabia and the UAE try to diversify their economies, they are increasingly hoping to boost trade and investment flows with other large developing nations like China and Brazil.

Investcorp established an investment vehicle backed by China Investment Corp. earlier this year. “That fund is coming along great, we are targeting about $750 million,” Chief Investment Officer Rishi Kapoor told Bloomberg TV last week, adding that the new entity has already inked three deals.

Ben-Gacem’s BlueFive will be based in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital that’s lured some of the biggest names in finance. The emirate’s deep pools of capital, including three sovereign wealth funds that control $1.5 trillion in assets, have been a key part of the draw for firms.

One of those state-backed funds, the $302 billion Mubadala Investment Co., is a shareholder in Investcorp, which also counts some of the Middle East’s wealthiest royals and business moguls among its backers.

At Investcorp, Harvard-educated Ben-Gacem oversaw investing and capital raising with Mideast sovereign and institutional funds. He also led the firm’s Europe private equity business and global technology investments, and helped drive a push into Asia as part of a plan to double assets under management to more than $100 billion over the next few years.