Raed Fakhri, vice president of investments at Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat), presented the company’s investment strategy and showcased some of its recent international investments. Mumtalakat, the investment arm of the Kingdom of Bahrain, is focused on growing and diversifying its portfolio through commercially sound and sustainable investments across multiple industries and geographies. Its key sectors of focus are logistics, technology, media and telecommunications; real estate and tourism; health care; consumer; industrials and manufacturing; and financial and general services.
In the past two years, Mumtalakat completed nine international investments, including the acquisition of a stake in PRO Unlimited, a leading provider of software and services in the United States; a stake in Nobel Learning, a diversified provider of preschool through high school education in the United States; a stake in Aleastur, a prominent manufacturer of aluminium grain refiners and master alloys in Spain; a stake in KOS Group, a leading health care group focused on long-term care and rehabilitation services in Italy; and Envirogen Group, a specialised international provider of water treatment solutions headquartered in the United Kingdom.
Mr Fakhri also highlighted Mumtalakat’s long-term partnership approach. Mumtalakat aims to invest in well-positioned international businesses looking for growth capital from a significant minority investor with a long investment horizon. For example, Mumtalakat is proud of its almost 10-year partnership with McLaren Group, which is globally renowned as one of sport’s most successful competitors and as one of the world’s most illustrious high-technology brands.
Furthermore, Mr Fakhri emphasised Mumtalakat’s interest in partnering with companies that have identified the GCC and MENA region as a key growth market, and that are willing to establish a platform in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In 2016, Mumtalakat partnered with prominent international industrial companies looking to utilise Bahrain’s leading position in the region. Bahrain’s ease of business, competitive cost structure and proximity to large regional economies, makes it an attractive location for such businesses to set up and target local, regional and international markets.