Bahrain’s Investcorp, the alternative asset manager that counts Mubadala Investment Company as its biggest shareholder, has raised more than $1.2 billion from its inaugural North American private equity fund as it looks to boost its investments in mid-market services businesses on the continent.
Blue-chip institutional investors such as pension plans, family offices, private wealth funds and an insurance company participated in the North American Private Equity Fund I, Investcorp said on Wednesday.
“We have a long and established history of investing in North America mid-market services companies, and we look forward to continuing to broaden and deepen our institutional investor base as this strategy continues to scale,” said Mohammed Alardhi, executive chairman of Investcorp.
The company is focusing on family and founder-owned businesses across six sub-sectors, including technology-enabled, knowledge and professional, data and information, supply chain, industry and speciality consumer services as part of its investment strategy.
The fund currently has seven investments within its portfolio.
“We are excited about the potential growth and value-creation opportunities presented by fund I’s existing portfolio companies and our robust pipeline of potential new investments,” said Dave Tayeh, North America’s head of private equity at Investcorp.
Set up in 1982, Investcorp has grown to become one of the leading alternative asset management companies in the region.
The company went on an acquisition spree during the Covid-19 pandemic to capitalise on lower asset valuations and continued its aggressive portfolio expansion in 2022.
Investcorp has carried its deal-making momentum into 2023 and in January said it plans to invest up to $1 billion in the GCC property market over the next five years.
In January, it announced its first Gulf property investment in a temperature-controlled 19,974-square-metre warehouse in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
It was the first in a series of property investments worth $100 million in total that Investcorp was assessing in the kingdom, the company said at the time.
In February, Investcorp agreed to make a “significant” investment in Finland-based technology company Eficode to become its majority shareholder.
As part of the deal, Investcorp is teaming up with Eficode’s founder Risto Virkkala and its chief executive Ilari Nurmi to support the company’s next phase of growth and international expansion.
Investcorp is also looking at new investment deals in Japan, Asia’s second-largest economy, as the company continues to expand its operations globally.
Investcorp’s North America Private Equity group has completed about 70 transactions in North American mid-market businesses, with investments worth more than $22 billion since inception, the company said.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Take them home with you if there is no litter bin
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What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
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