Mubasher: Bahrain’s Arcapita announced plans to make new investments in Saudi Arabia especially in the leisure, wellness and healthcare sectors.
The sharia-compliant alternative investment firm sees the kingdom as a “market with significant growth potential” for private equity, Arabian Business reported citing CEO Atif Ahmed Abdulmalik.
In October, Arcapita invested $67 million in the female-only gym chain NuYu to expand its network from seven to 30 gyms in Saudi Arabia.
“The fiscal year 2018 marked [Arcapita’s] first private equity investment in the kingdom’s sports and wellness industries,” Abdulmalik added.
In addition, the Bahrain-based investment firm plans to establish the first wellness-focused investment platform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Arcapita previously invested in several real estate projects which achieved high returns, particularly in the logistics sector, he noted.
Currently, the GCC nation's sharia-compliant investment firm is focusing on the logistics and industrial-oriented projects with the recurring income ranging from 8% to 10% annually, the CEO indicated.
Arcapita is “seeing an uptick in investment activity across emerging sectors such as Fintech and e-commerce and [is] keeping an eye on both start-ups and established businesses in this space,” Abdulmalik added.
