Abraaj deal poses two big questions - and maintains a trend

Arif Naqvi exercised the right to privacy. Andrew Harrer/ Bloomberg News

Two big questions were left hanging after Monday's announcement by Abraaj Capital that it was to take over Aureos Capital of London, regulators allowing: what will it cost and what does it mean?

Abraaj declined to give an answer to the first, for reasons of "confidentiality". Every company, especially private ones such as the two parties to this deal, has a right to privacy and a duty to its investors to protect confidential information, so it was well within the rights of Arif Naqvi, the founder and chief executive of Abraaj, to stay silent.

But it got the conspiracists' minds working.

There is a little sensitivity at Aureos, which used to be part of the overseas investment arm of the British government, the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC). It was bought out by its current management in 2008.

No financial details of that transaction have been given, but another former part of CDC, Actis, has been in the throes of a controversy in Britain when it was argued that the management got it on the cheap, allegedly at the UK taxpayers' expense.

Could something similar have happened at Aureos?

Well, it's possible, of course. Assets under management have risen from US$70 million (Dh257.1m) 10 years ago to $1.3 billion today, so the value of the firm, a specialist in finance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has most definitely increased. But Aureos management, under Sev Vettivetpillai, its chief executive, would argue that was down to the skill and expertise of his team, compared with the deadweight of British civil-service management.

Whatever the terms of the 2008 buyout, experts in the private-equity industry believe it unlikely Aureos executives will have hit a bonanza payday with the sale to Dubai-based Abraaj - or at least not immediately.

If executives walked away with the booty, it would simply reduce the funds available for investment, defeating the rationale of the deal.

Abraaj, the biggest private-equity firm in the Middle East, was adamant it had raised no new debt for the purchase and that it had not dipped into investment funds to clinch it either, so the odds are that there is a large element of equity incentivisation on the cards for Aureos executives some way down the line.That's OK. Big earn-outs, justified by performance, are preferable any day to big payouts.

With regard to the second question, there was much more transparency, and unanimity.

Private-equity experts were convinced of the synergetic qualities of the acquisition for Abraaj and Aureos.

The deal does not make the enlarged entity a rival for the likes of Blackstone and Goldman Sachs, giants of the private-equity world, but it does give it a commanding place in one specialist part of the global business - the financing of SMEs in the fast-growing emerging markets.

For Abraaj, this is a continuation of the trend that began years back with the setting up of Riyada Enterprise Development, but it will gain a quantum leap from the injection of $1.3bn of Aureos assets.

Now, out of its total assets under management of $7.5bn, about $2bn will be dedicated to emerging-market SMEs.

The Blackstones and Goldmans may have much larger investments in emerging markets, but not in the SME sector that many economists think will be the growth engine in those markets, especially in the Middle East.

The thinking is that with the Middle East and North Africa desperately in need of jobs for their youngsters in the coming years, many economies, with bloated public sectors unable to provide more employment, will have to look to SMEs to provide those jobs.

Aureos will give Abraaj exposure to geographical areas it never had before, such as Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.

With the exception of the US and Europe, where Abraaj has no intention of running up against the big beasts of the private-equity jungle, Mr Naqvi has gone as global as the circumstances allow.

Aureos gets access to the solid and efficient fund-raising machine Abraaj has proved to be over the years, as well as access to Gulf capital for the new markets it brings to Abraaj.

The private-equity market has come through an incredible decade of spectacular growth, and now, in different global circumstances, consolidation looks likely to be the way ahead.

The Abraaj-Aureos deal could be a straw in the wind.

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