Abraaj Acquires Aureos Capital

Abraaj Capital, the region’s largest private equity firm, announced the acquisition of Aureos Capital, a global private equity fund management group investing in SMEs across Asia, Africa and Latin America, on Monday.

The combined entity will hold approximately $7.5 billion in assets under management across 153 investments in around 30 countries.

Aureos currently has an operational presence in over 20 emerging markets countries, $1.3 billion in funds under management and over 250 deals completed in the SME segment in the last two decades.

The acquisition will bring Aureos together with Abraaj’s existing $650 million SME platform, Riyada Enterprise Development (“RED”), which is focused on the MENA region. The transaction will create the world’s largest SME focused private equity group targeting SME investment opportunities across the high growth markets of Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America.

“Aureos has extensive experience and knowledge of the markets they invest in, with a geographical footprint totally complementary to Abraaj with no overlap. Both Abraaj Capital and Aureos are ‘home grown’ emerging markets private equity firms with a similar philosophy and shared values,” said Arif Naqvi, founder and group chief executive, Abraaj Capital.

“This acquisition is an important step in our expansion into Latin America, South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and a new chapter in the Abraaj Capital story”.

All Aureos and RED funds will continue according to their existing fund mandates and investment guidelines. The expanded Aureos platform will retain its inherent structure and team within the Abraaj Group.

Founded in 2002, DIFC-registered Abraaj Capital currently has around $6 billion in assets under management, with holdings in around 35 companies in the region, including Air Arabia, Network International, Integrated Healthcare Holdings and Al Borg Laboratories.