Private Equity Portfolio

In 2012, the Firm in partnership with Tharawat Investment House B.S.C. acquired 49% stake in Hungry Bunny Company Limited (“HB”) which is a limited liability company registered in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The company is engaged in logistic services and serving cooked and non-cooked food and contracting, managing and operating restaurants, bakeries and cafes and trading in wholesale and retail including drinks and chilled meat. Hungry Bunny owns and operates 32 fast food burger joints under the Hungry Bunny brand name in Saudi Arabia.

In 2021, Hungry Bunny from Joody Al Sharqiyah Factory, a meat processing factory in the Industrial City of Dammam.

In 2025, the Firm fully exited from Hungry Bunny.

In March 2008, the Firm through its SPV IIB Automotive Ltd (“IAL”), acquired a minority stake in ARTES, a Tunisian automobile distributor. ARTES is a prominent player in the Tunisian car distribution industry with a well-developed retail network that consists of 26 outlets across the country. ARTES is the exclusive distributor of Renault, Nissan, and Dacia automobiles and spare parts and provides automobile maintenance services. ARTES was majority owned by the Mzabi Group, a leading North African family business group with interests in industry, retail, tourism, banking and financial services, with 51% stake company. IAL holds a 9.42% equity stake in ARTES.

In 2016, the Firm proceeded with a successful block sale of ARTES shares at a positive IRR to investors.

In 2014, the Firm invested US$ 8.7 million for a 95% stake in the purchase and leaseback of A330-300 Aircraft (“Aircraft”) to Finnair Airlines (“Finnair”).

The Aircraft was on lease to Finnair on a non-cancellable lease of 12 years, expiring in July 2026. Novus Aviation Limited, a professional aviation firm engaged as the lease manager and the exclusive remarketing agent for this transaction. Novus also holds a 5% stake in the Aircraft.

The Firm received regular income from the lease (net of debt servicing and costs), amounting to circa 9.7% per annum on its investment. The Firm exited this investment in October 2018, generating circa 18% IRR.

In 2015, the Firm invested US$ 22.65 million to purchase and lease back of one Boeing B777-300ER Aircraft to Emirates Airlines for a non-cancellable lease period of 9 years. The investment yielded 11.62% per annum during its holding period. The total transaction value of to acquire the aircraft was around US$ 120 million which majority was financed through a bank loan.

During the same year, the Firm announced the disposal of the aircraft resulting in more than 30% IRR for the bank. The exit was an easy decision for the Firm to make because it offered much higher returns than the Firm anticipated when we it entered into the transaction.

In 2005, the Firm acquired an indirect equity stake in Queenex Hygiene Paper Manufacturing LLC, a paper mill company established in the UAE to produce paper rolls that will be used as raw material by tissue paper-converting factories in the Middle East. The company has started its commercial operations in April 2012.

The plant has state-of-art machinery that can produce, solely or combination, virgin pulp and de-inking (recycled) rolls with designable production capacity of 32,000 MT/Annum and exports products to Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and small amount to the UK.

In 2023, the Firm exited from Queenex Hygiene Paper Manufacturing LLC.

In 2006, the Firm acquired an indirect equity stake in European Islamic Investment Bank Plc (EIIB), the first Shari’ah compliant Islamic Investment Bank in the United Kingdom regulated by the Financial Services Authority, now the Prudential Regulation Authority.

EIIB rebranded as Rasmala Plc back in December 2015. Rasmala offers a range of products and services including Islamic Treasury, Capital Markets, Asset Management, and Corporate Finance services.