|By Arabian Post Staff| Abraaj Holdings, Abraaj Investment Management Limited and Colony Capital, Inc., through the Group’s Joint Provisional Liquidators, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte, announced that they have reached agreement on the principal terms for the sale and purchase of the Group’s Latin America, Sub Saharan Africa, North Africa and Turkey Funds management business and the Group’s Limited Partnership interests in the underlying Funds, along with staff in the eight offices being transferred under the terms of the deal.
Colony has also agreed to oversee, on an interim basis, other Group Funds that are not being acquired so that the Group and all its stakeholders have a comprehensive global solution in place.
The agreement has received in principle regulatory approval and is expected to close upon approval from the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands as well as other customary consents. The transaction is expected to complete by July 1.
Colony is a leading global investment management firm. Colony has significant holdings in the healthcare, industrial and hospitality sectors, in addition to other private equity and debt investments, with an embedded institutional and retail investment management business. It was founded by Thomas J. Barrack, Jr. in 1991.
Abraaj was founded in 2002 by Arif Naqvi and emerged to become a leading private equity investor in growth markets with a regional footprint spanning Latin America to South East Asia. The Group has investments which include a portfolio of mature businesses covering diverse sectors including financial services, FMCG, industrials, healthcare, education, manufacturing and logistics.
Tom Barrack, Executive Chairman, Colony Capital, Inc. said, “We are delighted to have crafted this comprehensive global solution for Abraaj and its stakeholders and sincerely hope that this can enable the process of rebuilding on all sides and also bring an end to the speculation that has swirled around Abraaj over the last months.”
Arif Naqvi, Founder, The Abraaj Group added, “The appointment of the joint provisional liquidators and the start of the process of restructuring this business that we operated across diverse markets is a moment of introspection, but also one of satisfaction, knowing that the teams that have been nurtured over the years and the businesses that we were proud to invest in now have a clearly defined future and a good home that will become the custodians of the next phase of this journey.”
Selcuk Yorgancioglu and Omar Lodhi, Co-Chief Executives of Abraaj Investment Management Limited said,” We are pleased to join the Colony platform and team which allows us to continue building our businesses in the fast-growing markets that we have been committed to for over two decades.”
Michael Jervis, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Joint Provisional Liquidator of Abraaj Holdings, said, “This is an important milestone towards achieving the overall objectives of the Provisional Liquidation and restructuring as set out in the Court Order. We shall be consulting with our creditors in the coming days on this planned transaction prior to seeking the approval of court.”
Stuart Sybersma, Partner at Deloitte and Joint Provisional Liquidator of Abraaj Investment Management Limited (“AIML”) said “We are pleased to have agreed a sale of certain of AIML’s business units and assets in such a short timeframe, allowing, in line with our restructuring mandate, for these business units to continue to trade and ensuring continuity of service to investors and employment for the members of staff employed in these regions. The next step is to seek sanction of the Cayman Islands Court for the transaction, which will be undertaken on an expedited basis.”
