Dubai’s Shuaa Capital supports businesses via its corporate restructuring and financial services

Asset management and investment banking platform Shuaa Capital is strengthening its corporate restructuring service to re-energise the business sector, it announced on June 4.

Shuaa’s corporate restructuring solutions facilitate businesses to secure new credit lines, and have been curated to  address the frozen credit markets that result in liquidity and potential insolvency challenges faced by businesses impacted the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shuaa has also emboldened its advisory services for corporates to execute capital raising through diverse instruments such as mezzanine/sub-ordinated debt, Term Loan B (TLBs), fixed income, convertibles, preferred equity, and others.

Shuaa Capital has, in recent years, structured and invested over $4bn of debt deals including almost $1bn of high yield / alternative debt transactions.

Jassim Alseddiqi, chief executive officer of Shuaa Capital said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on businesses, freezing their credit lines, and pushing several to insolvency. The UAE has been among the first nations to announce a financial stimulus package to support the business community and to direct them back to healthy fundamentals. As a company committed to creating value for our stakeholders, we understand that businesses need access to both revenue and liquidity, especially as we prepare for the post Covid-19 world. By strengthening our corporate restructuring service, we are stepping up our support to the business community and preparing them to emerge safer and stronger from the current crisis.”

“Shuaa brings ADFG’s understanding of debt with Shuaa Capital’s expertise in fixed income trading, positioning it as the financial advisory leader in corporate restructuring as well as issuing and trading high yield debt and fixed income instruments. The ‘extend and pretend’ approach to restructuring debt no longer works. Corporates need to look at the full range of instruments available to optimise their balance sheet to grow out of their liquidity issues. That is what Shuaa brings to the table and we are confident that our service portfolio will address what we see as a crisis of confidence in the market.”

Shuaa Capital is also playing a notable role in the regional sukuk market as a mandate lead arranger for several issuances, including the GFH Financial Group’s $300m five-year sukuk in early 2020, Jabal Omar Development Company’s $135m five-year sukuk and The First Group’s $135m sukuk in 2019.

The total amount raised for Shuaa-led sukuks was worth more than $600m during the past year-and-a-half, making it the most active non-bank advisor in the Middle East for sukuk issuances.

Shuaa also maintains a strong record in the investment banking and asset management businesses, including operational and financial restructurings.

“While credit markets in the US and Europe have come back stronger than before, things might take a little longer in the region given the impact of lower oil prices and less developed capital markets, especially in the corporate debt space,” Alseddiqi said.

“Restructuring existing debt is only part of a wider restructuring exercise. There is almost always a need now for fresh capital. We typically underwrite and holds a portion of any capital raised. We like having skin in the game to show our clients and our investors and banking relationships that we stand behind the restructuring. We believe that it is not prudent to wait and watch but to take quick action, which is reflected in our strengthened service offering.”