DUBAI: Bahrain-based Investcorp is responding to the election of US President Donald Trump and Brexit by seeking investments in US business services and British real estate, the private equity firm’s Co-Chief Executive Rishi Kapoor said.
Investcorp, which expects its assets under management to rise to around $21 billion in the first half of 2017, on Thursday reported a fall in profit to $35.6 million in the six months to Dec. 31 from $50.9 million in the prior-year period.
This was largely due to the writedown of a real estate investment in the US which it bought before the global financial crisis, Kapoor told Reuters on a call.
Among potential investments in the US, Europe and the Gulf, Investcorp was looking for opportunities created by Britain’s vote to leave the EU and uncertainty over whether Trump’s US administration would deploy fiscal stimulus and the pace of interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.
“As a consequence (of the uncertainty) in the US, the kind of businesses we are focusing on are those resilient to cyclical downturns,” Kapoor said, adding that business services was one area in particular where it was looking for opportunities.
Kapoor said US-based AlixPartners, the global advisory firm it agreed to acquire ownership stakes in along with other investors in November, was an example of this thinking.
In Britain, Investcorp was looking at real estate assets with a long-term horizon in order to overcome any market volatility in the next two or three years, he said.
The pound’s slump since June’s Brexit vote has encouraged investors from some Middle Eastern markets linked to the US dollar to look for openings in the property market.
Investcorp, which was founded in 1982, is one of the oldest Middle Eastern private equity houses and is best known outside the region for listing luxury goods brands such as Gucci and Tiffany & Co.
It has increasingly branched out into other sectors and set out a goal in 2015 to more than double its assets under management in the next five to seven years to $25 billion.
In a big step toward achieving that goal it agreed to buy 3i Group’s debt-management business in October. When that deal closes in the first half of 2017, Investcorp said its assets under management will reach around $21 billion.
Bahrain’s Investcorp targets US service sector, UK property
Bahrain’s Investcorp targets US service sector, UK property
PIF’s Humain invests $3bn in Elon Musk’s xAI prior to SpaceX acquisition
JEDDAH: Humain, an artificial intelligence company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, invested $3 billion in Elon Musk’s xAI shortly before the startup was acquired by SpaceX.
As part of xAI’s Series E round, Humain acquired a significant minority stake in the company, which was subsequently converted into shares of SpaceX, according to a press release.
The transaction reflects PIF’s broader push to position Saudi Arabia as a central hub in the global AI ecosystem, as part of its Vision 2030 diversification strategy.
Through Humain, the fund is seeking to combine capital deployment with infrastructure buildout, partnerships with leading technology firms, and domestic capacity development to reduce reliance on oil revenues and expand into advanced industries.
The $3 billion commitment offers potential for long-term capital gains while reinforcing the company’s role as a strategic, scaled investor in transformative technologies.
CEO Tareq Amin said: “This investment reflects Humain’s conviction in transformational AI and our ability to deploy meaningful capital behind exceptional opportunities where long-term vision, technical excellence, and execution converge, xAI’s trajectory, further strengthened by its acquisition by SpaceX, one of the largest technology mergers on record, represents the kind of high-impact platform we seek to support with significant capital.”
The deal builds on a large-scale collaboration announced in November at the US-Saudi Investment Forum, where Humain and xAI committed to developing over 500 megawatts of next-generation AI data center and computing infrastructure, alongside deploying xAI’s “Grok” models in the Kingdom.
In a post on his X handle, Amin said: “I’m proud to share that Humain has invested $3 billion into xAI’s Series E round, just prior to its historic acquisition by SpaceX. Through this transaction, Humain became a significant minority shareholder in xAI.”
He added: “The investment builds on our previously announced 500MW AI infrastructure partnership with xAI in Saudi Arabia, reinforcing Humain’s role as both a strategic development partner and a scaled global investor in frontier AI.”
He noted that xAI’s trajectory, further strengthened by SpaceX’s acquisition, exemplifies the high-impact platforms Humain aims to support through strategic investments.
Earlier in February, SpaceX completed the acquisition of xAI, reflecting Elon Musk’s strategy to integrate AI with space exploration.
The combined entity, valued at $1.25 trillion, aims to build a vertically integrated innovation ecosystem spanning AI, space launch technology, and satellite internet, as well as direct-to-device communications and real-time information platforms, according to Bloomberg.
Humain, founded in August, consolidates Saudi Arabia’s AI initiatives under a single entity. From the outset, its vision has extended beyond domestic markets, participating across the global AI value chain from infrastructure to applications.
The company represents a strategic initiative by PIF to diversify the Kingdom’s economy and reduce oil dependence by investing in knowledge-based and advanced technologies.
