About Abraaj…
Here in the U.A.E. the big news has been the swift and sudden collapse of Abraaj, once the Middle East’s biggest private equity firm and an erstwhile ‘success story’ of Dubai’s financial centre. Headed by the charismatic Arif Naqvi, the firm had $14 billion of assets as recently as a year ago. Now it’s in liquidation following accusations from international investors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that it mishandled money in a $1 billion healthcare fund. Early reports from the liquidators describe even more questionable behaviour.
If you want to know more about what’s shaping up to be the biggest PE collapse in history — then try the following links to a couple Bloomberg long-reads from myself and a couple of awesome Bloomberg colleagues: Dinesh Nair and Matthew Martin.
The Downfall of Dubai’s Star Investor — June 14, 2018
Behind the Spectacular Collapse of a Private Equity Titan — July 30, 2018
You can also check out the below clip (about 38 minutes in), from Bloomberg TV’s What’d You Miss?, where I put the whole Dubai-based drama into an international context:
