By Divya Chowdhury and Hadeel Al Sayegh
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Investcorp could consider a public listing in the next three to five years, its vice chairman said on Friday, as the Middle East’s biggest alternative investment firm targets a doubling of its assets under management to $100 billion.
Rishi Kapoor, who is also Investcorp’s chief investment officer, told the Reuters Global Markets Forum that it could consider London or New York as a listing venue.
There were “multiple paths” open to Investcorp, which floated its investment vehicle as a separate company on the Abu Dhabi stock exchange in 2023, Kapoor said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
“Three to five years is appropriate for us … to build that scale. I think that puts us in a good spot … to seek an opportunity to provide liquidity or value crystallization to our shareholders,” he added.
Investcorp, which was founded in 1982 in Bahrain, currently manages assets worth $55 billion. It is best known for listing luxury goods brands such as Gucci and Tiffany & Co, but it has branched out into other areas, such as private credit.
The alternative investment industry saw a flurry of deals last year as giants such as BlackRock, General Atlantic and TPG sought acquisitions to grow and add new asset classes to their business.
In the Middle East, the alternative investment business of National Bank of Kuwait was acquired by global asset manager Janus Henderson.
401(k) NEXT?
Global private equity has so far tapped into high-net worth individuals and institutional investors, but they are yet to attract investments from the pool of 401(k) retirement savings of U.S. workers, estimated at around $12 trillion.
The Financial Times this month reported that the industry planned to lobby the new Trump administration to allow 401(k) plans to include alternative investments and classify private equity as professionally managed funds.
Kapoor said Investcorp could seek to participate either directly or in partnership with others, should the initiatives be allowed.
“There is a natural progression towards democratization of private market assets … and the next natural evolution for that would be for it to be an integral part of that 401(k) system,” he added.
Unlike public markets, alternative assets are illiquid and would need to be prudently allocated to manage risk, both from a volatility and liquidity perspective.
“So it won’t be a big number, but when you’re taking a small percentage of a very large number, (it’s a) large dollar figure,” Kapoor said.
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(Reporting by Divya Chowdhury in Davos and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Alexander Smith and Alex Richardson)
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