Why should one invest in mutual funds?

Wealthy people have their wealth in form which offers them returns. The forms in which wealthy people park their money is real estate, bonds, debentures, mutual fund units, shares and stock along with others.

Take the example of shares which are in fact part ownership of corporations. If you invest in shares of a corporation you in fact own part of it thus taking part in its future profits and losses.

If you invest shares of Cement Company, you expose yourself to risks affecting the cement industry negatively. Moreover, there are some factors that can affect your company specifically like bad management, technological obsolescence and others.

In order to reduce company specific risk exposure, you need to invest in a number of companies. Likewise, if you want to reduce risk exposure to a certain industry you need to invest in different industries.

The more variety of shares you purchase the less risk exposure you will have. Reducing your exposure to risk by way of investing in multiple securities is called diversification.

Diversification when rightly implemented can reduce your risk exposure. But there are costs associated with buying number of different securities e.g. cost of ordering, accounting, etc. In order to get full benefit of diversification you need to invest a large amount in different securities. An individual has limited amount of capital and cannot diversify, which keeps him away from investing.

The problem of small capital can only be overcome by pooling of funds by different interested individuals. But how to pool funds and also the issue who would manage the funds on behalf of investors arises.

The answer to all these questions can be overcome by utilizing a vehicle called mutual fund.

Mutual funds are pool of funds managed by fund manager for the benefit of isolated investors, who don’t have expertise in the investment field.

When you invest through mutual funds, you benefit from the expert management. The analysts working for the mutual fund industry generates financial models which grows your capital as well as provides protection to your capital.

With Mutual fund investing you also get benefit from diversification, and economies of scale.

The one thing anyone interested in investing through mutual funds should keep in mind that the return from mutual fund is dependent not only on the financial markets performance but also the overall economic performance.

So start investing with good mutual fund manager and select the mutual fund after due diligence.

Disclosure: any thing/ content isn’t substitute of professional advice and the blogging team isn’t responsible for any loss/ damage resulting from acting on information from this blog.

Who owns PSL cricket teams

Pakistan is a cricket loving nation. The cricket matches between Pakistan and India are biggest sports event and therefore good business opportunity for sponsors.

Pakistanis use to spend a lot of time on watching the game as it is long game unlike football.

Pakistan Cricket Board in its effort to reintroduce international cricket in Pakistan, established Pakistan Super League (PSL). PSL is a single entity and has five cricket teams as its franchises. The commercial rights to the initial franchises were sold for PKR 9.85 billion ( 91.4 million $) for a span of 10 years in December 2015. The first session, held in 2016, yielded 2.6 million $ in profit.

Owners of these teams are:-

Karachi Kings is owned by ARY Media Group. ARY Media Group is owned by  Salman Iqbal, whose net income for year is 90 million$.¹ Karachi King was sold to ARY Media Group for a period of 10 years, from December 2015, for 26 million$, thus making it the most expensive PSL team.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Lahore Qalandars are owned by Qatar Lubricants Company limited (QALCO). QALCO is the only state-of-the-art lubricants blending plant in Qatar. This company is headed by Rana Fawad. It is the second most expensive team after Karachi Kings and was priced at 24 million $ in December 2015.

Peshawar Zalmi was sold to Haier Paksitan for 10 year period against 16 million US dollars. Javed Afridi is the CEO of Haier Pakistan. Haier Pakistan is subsidiary of Haier Group Corporation based in China.

Quetta Gladiators is owned by Omar Associates, a Karachi based company. The company was founded in 1969. Nadeem Omar is presently the CEO of the company. The group was basically a construction company but now the group is planning to enter into mining sector. The group acquired the franchise for 11 million$.

Islalmabad United Leonine Global Sports won the bid for franchise rights of Islamabad United for a decade against 15 million$. Leonine Global Sports is owned by venture capital firm Leonine Global which is based in UAE. The sports entity Leonine Global Sports also owns a franchise team in Hong Kong T20 League. The venture capital firm is owned by Ali Naqvi.  Ali Naqvi is a renowned businessman having business interests in different countries.

Related links

1. Salman Iqbal

2.    Islamabad United 

3. Ali Naqvi

Investment in Dubai realty market

After 2008 Dubai property market learned a lot from the crisis. Laws and regulations were improved. Property transfer fee has been raised to sideline speculators. Escrow account added another layer of security for investors. The payment to developers is released when the developer presents certificate that certain stage in construction has been reached. This ensures safety of investors from delay and cancellation of project.

Dubai night view

These new laws have brought stability to Dubai property market. Property market again bounced back.  According to Dubai land department Indian investors led the realty investors list by investing 18.123 billion dirham during 2014. The total transactions by Indians totaled 7353 during the period.

Pakistani investors were ranked second as they transacted 5079 times amounting to 7.588 billion dirham. These investors included entrepreneurs, professionals, civil and military officials, overseas Pakistanis and other high net worth individuals. Pakistan, according to wealth report 2013, had 415 ultra high net worth individuals. The average wealth of these ultra high net worth individuals was 120.5 million dollars. After economic recovery in 2014, number of super rich may have gone up.

British investment came third at 9.318 billion dirham. Iran and Canada came fourth and fifth respectively. Investment from Iranians stood at 4.5 billion dirham while from Canadians it was 3.157billion dirham.

The huge interest of Indo-Pak investors is due to following reasons. Investment outlets in home country like that offered by Dubai is lacking. Furthermore realty market in Dubai has been developed and matured since its opening in 2002 to foreign investors.  Secondly the proximity of Dubai to sub continent is another reason for Indo-Pak investors to invest in Dubai. Thirdly Dubai market offers unique opportunity of earning tax free rental income and capital gains.

The total non-Arab investment in Dubai during 2014 amounted to 64 billion dirham through 29,098 transactions. This constitutes more than half investment in the real estate. The balance is expected to remain in favor of non-Arab investors if oil prices remained dip.

Jordan topped the list of Arab realty investor in Dubai. 

Cybersecurity Billionaire Ashar Aziz Butt

Ashar Aziz Butt is founder, CTO and chief strategy officer of cybersecurity firm, FireEye. FireEye provides companies with technology and services to protect them against malwares and cyber attacks.
For a short duration Ashar Aziz, being the largest individual shareholder of the company became cybersecurity billionaire. He is the son of Asghar Butt, renowned Editor of the leading daily ‘The Nation’ and a former Pakistani bureaucrat.

Aziz's previous venture was Terraspring, which was later acquired by sun microsystem, a company where Aziz  worked for 12 years. Today Aziz is one of the top experts in internet and computer security. He is the original inventor of the set of technologies used by FireEye.
Owing to his holding in the cybersecrity giant, his net worth in the month of march 2014 jumped slightly more than a billion us dollars, as the share of his company hit 96$. His billionaire status was quickly taken away by a fall in the share price. Recently his company's share lost considerable value. His company's share is currently valued at 27.53$. This makes his net worth at 269.548 million dollars. At present he holds 9,791,096 shares of FireEye Inc.
 His company has acquired another company nPulse Technologies. In January the company acquired Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm based in Alexandria, for $1 billion.
Aziz holds Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Master's in computer science from University of California, Berkeley. He has one brother named Dr. Ahmer Aziz Butt.

Pakistani people in private equity industry.

Private equity represents a class of investors, their funds, and their subsequent investments, which are made in private companies or public companies with the goal of taking them private.

Below are some notable Pakistani people from private equity industry around the globe.

1.      Riaz Siddiqi is a Founder and Managing Partner of Denham Capital, a private equity firm that manages over 4 billion dollars and invests in the commodity and energy sectors globally.

2.      Faysal Sohail is a venture capitalist and has served as a General Partner at CMEA Capital since 2002. 

3.      Wahid Hamid is a Senior Partner at Abraaj Capital and Head of Portfolio Management and Operations Group.

4.      Dr. Moeen Qureshi - Chairman of EMP Global, a multi-billion private equity fund; Former Prime Minister of Pakistan; Former CFO of World Bank

5.      Arif Naqvi is founder Abraaj Capital, a leading private equity firm that invests in Middle East and North Africa.

6.      Aamer A. Sarfraz is founder of Indus Basin Holding, a developer of agribusiness projects in Pakistan.

7.      James Caan is also the founder and currently CEO of the UK-based private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw

8.      asad zain Founding Member at Manara Equity Partners

9.      Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, General Partner New Silk Route Partners (a private equity firm that invests in Asia and middle east)

10.  Sardar Sherazam Mazari. In May 2009, he established Rojhan Capital as Managing Partner, which is an investment and management company focused on Pakistan.

11. Asad Jamal of ePlanet Capital is global venture pioneer. He has offices in Asia, Europe, U.S. he led investments in many hi-tech firms including Baidu ( China’s google), HiSoft (information technology and business process outsourcing company headquartered in China), median technologies (cancer detection company based in France), SiliconFile Technologies(chips for cell phones and cameras, South Korea) 

Related Link
asad jamal
moheen qureshi
arif naqvi
indus basin holding
sardar sherazam mazari

Izzat Majeed, CEO Alyph Limited

Izzat Majeed is an entrepreneur, investor, poet and educationist. His investment company Alyph Limited is a billion dollar company. Izzat Majeed studied in Britain from Oxford University and completed his master’s degree with economics. He started his career as a lecturer at Punjab University. After 7 years as lecturer he resigned from the university. He still lectures in west on Islam. In 1982 he moved to Saudi Arabia where he served as an advisor to Saudi Arabian minister, his Excellency Hisham Nazer. After leaving advisory to Saudi minister he started an investment company, Alyph Limited in London.

Alyph Limited has investment in green field industrial and infrastructural investment projects globally. The business interests of this company around the world exceeds 1 billion us dollars. In Pakistan Izzat Majeed bought union bank and then sold it to standard chartered bank.

His interest in music especially classical music led to the birth of Sachal Music in Lahore.

Pakistan has one of the largest diasporas of the world.

The population of Pakistani Diaspora is more than the population of many countries. There are approximately 7 million people living overseas.

These people include world class professionals. Many doctors, engineers, business managers, etc. are working in different countries. Pakistan has world’s best doctors. They are serving in almost all countries of the world.

Pakistan has some best centers of higher education although they are few in numbers. These institutes include Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of science and technology, NUST, NED, IBA, LUMS, etc.

Expatriates serving in United States, United Kingdom are entrepreneurs, executives and other successful professional while those serving in Middle East are generally laborers. Rich expatriates are living overseas with their families while those less affluent are living alone. Pakistan receives enormous remittances especially from Middle East countries as expatriates from these countries send money to their families. Middle Eastern countries do not allow naturalization.

In European countries and in United States, it is estimated that half of Pakistanis have received their nationality. There are second and third generations of Pakistanis living there. These Pakistanis have learned a lot about foreign cultures and are increasingly intermingling with the local people from those countries.

Pakistan can export more man power to Middle Eastern countries as well as other countries facing shortage of manpower. There are many countries whose work force is shrinking owing to ageing of their population like Italy, Australia etc. and Pakistanis can benefit from opportunities in those countries. Although Pakistanis have to face stiff competition from china and India as both have huge population and have good standard of education. The increasing competition can only be faced by increasing the higher education spending as well as excess of higher education to more people.

 related links.

wikipedia

Saltflow, Inc.

Saltflow, inc. is a conglomerate and has stakes in diverse fields. Saltflow was founded in 2005 by Arif Ayub, a Pakistani national. This group is based in Dubai, UAE.

Saltflow has annual revenues in excess of $570 million annually. Group is involved in a number of fields including construction industry, trade and retail industry, and technology industry. Group has expanded its presence to North America through acquisitions.

Group’s technology business is heavily centered in Russia and controls internet companies primarily targeted at mobile and financials solutions for consumers.

In North America group has stakes in retail and trade sector. Group has invested huge amounts in retail brands and is expecting good returns.

Group also has stakes in construction industry.

Presently group provides employment to more than 500 people.

related link 

Saltflow, Inc.

Sadeq Saeed, a Pakistani banker

Sadeq Sayeed is a prominent Pakistani banker and electrical engineer. Presently he is serving London based hedge fund firm, Metage Capital Limited, as its chairman.

Sayeed was born in Pakistan and went to United States for studies. He took admission in Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduate programme in economics with concentration in electrical engineering. Later he also got his master in finance from the MIT.

He started his active professional life at the age of 23 by joining World Bank. His assignments in World Bank include working as research associate and internal consultant.

Later in 2000 he joined Nomura group, a Japanese financial conglomerate. Before joining Nomura he also served Credit Suisse First Boston, an investment banking division of Credit Suisse group.

At retirement from Nomura, he is reported to have received severance package amounting to 34 million us dollars.

In Pakistan he along with shaukat tareen, former Pakistani finance minister, led consortium which acquired controlling stakes in Saudi pak commercial bank. Later Saudi pak commercial bank was renamed as Silk Bank Limited.

Tariq Farid, Pakistani American entrepreneur

Tariq Farid is a Pakistani born American. He started his entrepreneurial career at an early age, by successfully managing flower shops. His latest started venture is Farid Capital Corporation that helps franchises buying equipment. Farid is a serial entrepreneur. Besides starting Farid Capital Corporation he is also operating an international franchise business by the name edible arrangements. Edible arrangements was started by Tariq along with his brother in 1999. His edible arrangements boasted revenues of 195million us dollars in 2008, and owns 883 franchises internationally.

His other entrepreneurial ventures are related to software. He created Netsolace, which is a software company and specializes in providing software to franchise industry.

Farid attribute his success to his business philosophy. According to him his success has come from paying attention to often overlooked details such as website, order tracking and follow-up customer service, the logo and branding, and employee training.

Farid has been recognized as an entrepreneur of the year by international franchise association in 2009.

related link 

wikipedia

tariq farid

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BENEFITS TO SOCIETY

Sadruddin Hashwani is a Pakistani billionaire. According to information available on the internet he has a net worth of 1 billion us dollars. He owns many five star hotels including world famous Marriott hotel Islamabad. He also owns stakes in many other businesses. He provides services to many people by offering staying facilities to many delegations foreign as well as domestic. His businesses also include oil and gas exploration and Production Company. He provides employment to many people directly and indirectly.

There are many other businessmen who provide employment to many people. Many overseas Pakistanis also have invested heavily in Pakistan like Sir Anwer Perwaiz. His Bestway group has invested in banking and cement manufacturing sector. His businesses also employees many people. Along with providing employment, his business produces products that are exported to many other countries. Cement manufactured by his plant is exported in huge quantity to Malaysia earning heavy foreign exchange.

Alsher Fiyaz is another expatriate Pakistani who is the founder of alfi investment and his company has stakes in shipping and retailing industry. His brother Javed Fiyaz is involved in many charity projects in Pakistan. Fiyaz family has an estimated net worth of 3 billion pounds.

Entrepreneurs generate opportunities for employment and earning foreign exchange. They produce goods and services for consumption inside and outside our country. So in regard to these services they should be respected by community and Government should facilitate entrepreneurs, as entrepreneurship is engine to economic growth.

Pakistanis in retail and wholesale sector worldwide

Pakistan is 6^th most populous country in the world. This country is having huge growing middle class. Size of retail and wholesale market is above 40 billion us dollars per annum. To benefit from this huge sector many international retail and wholesale companies have moved in Pakistan. Metro cash and carry, makro, hyperstar etc. are some names that are active in Pakistan’s retail and wholesale sector. 

Although Pakistan has huge retail sector, but still Pakistan has not produced any international chain of supermarkets. The size of majority of retailers is small and competition among them is tough. Retail sector contribute very little to state exchequer despite having a large share in GDP. Total contribution to state exchequer is approximately 125 million rupees while 50 million is contributed by canteen store department, chain of retail outlets managed by defense ministry.
Pakistan has huge diaspora. nearly 7 million Pakistanis are living in different countries of the world. there are nearly 1 million Pakistanis in united states. In United Kingdom nearly .7 million Pakistanis are living.

Many Pakistani businessmen abroad are involved in retail and wholesale business. This is because Retail business doesn’t needs a person to have any experience or specified level of education. Many Pakistani owns convenience stores abroad. The US convenience store market is monopolized by Pakistanis and Indians. In United Kingdom many Pakistanis are active in retail and wholesale sector. E.g. Pak supermarket is owned by Khalid Hussain. United wholesale grocer was owned by Muhammad Sarwar and his brother Muhammad Ramzan. Sir Anwer Pervaiz owns Bestway cash and carry. Najib Khan owns food retailing business in United Kingdom. Syed Qamar Reza owns 12 outlet of retail24 in United Kingdom.

Pakistanis are not only active in retail sector of USA and UK but also Middle Eastern countries. Abdul Razzaq Yaqoob owns chain of jewelry outlets. He also has started ARY cash and carry.

industries produced Pakistani billionaires

According to Forbes technology is the sector that has produced highest number of billionaire in United States after investment. The leading sector in the rest of the world according to Forbes is investment while fashion and retail ranks second.

GlobalTop 10 Industries Producing Forbes Billionaires

1. Investments: 143
2. Fashion & Retail: 123
3. Real Estate: 102
4. Diversified: 97
5. Technology: 90
6.  Manufacturing: 85
7. Energy: 78
8. Finance: 77
9. Food & Beverage: 69
10. Media: 64

Pakistan has a list of rupee billionaires, although completeness and correctness of this list is doubted. Although it is difficult to know which sector produced how many billionaires in Pakistan. But it can be seen from the list that majority of Pakistani billionaires come from diversified, textile and fashion, investment, landholdings, overseas business and media.

Big business houses in Pakistan used to invest in diversified sectors to manage risk.

Pakistan has huge textile and fashion industry and is growing at a high rate. Many fashion designers have started doing business on a global scale. Names like Maria b. Hassan Shehryar Yasin etc are having retail outlet around the world and their clients include many rich and famous people including family members of royal families. Fashion retail outlet like Chenone is having its retail outlets in different cities of the world.

Pakistani stock exchange is best performing stock exchange in the world. It has generated good returns for investors. Many international investors are also investing in Pakistan’s stock exchange. Pakistan has many mutual funds which provide opportunity to household investors to invest in stock exchange.

Pakistan has large land holdings since the colonial era and families manage to keep these large land holdings in their own families through inter-cousin marriages.

Many Pakistani billionaires have got their massive wealth from overseas business and investment in other countries. Sir Anwer Perwaiz is one such billionaire who got his wealth by establishing bestway group in UK.

Media is another such area where Pakistani billionaires have stakes. Jang group owned by Mir family is well known to have earned their wealth from their media business. Electronic media is a recent entry in this field As Pakistani government started issuing licenses to private television channels.

Pakistani American on forbes list

Forbes has issued list of billionaires 2014. According to Forbes there are 1645 billionaires in the world. This is the all time high number of billionaires according to the Forbes magazine. the total aggregate wealth of these billionaires is 6.4 trillion us dollars.
Shahid khan, the Pakistani born american billionaires has been estimated to be worth 4.1 billion dollars.  He has been ranked 367th richest person in the world. Shahid Khan is the owner of Flex-N-Gate, an automobile parts manufacturer. He is also the owner of Jacksonville jaguars of the National Football League. in july 2013, he acquired premier league football club Fulham for estimated 300 million us dollars. His name has also been mentioned in rich list Pakistani expatriate.

Shahid Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan. He went to United States at the age of sixteen for studying. He has Bsc in mechanical and industrial engineering.
His company Flex-N-Gate has 12450 employees and 48 manufacturing plant. In year 2011 Flex-N-Gate has 3 billion us dollars in revenue.

Shahid Khan is married with Ann Khan and has two children Shan Khan and Tony Khan.

Related links.
Shahid Khan forbes list
Shahid Khan Wikipedia

Rich list Pakistani expatriates

Below is a list of richest Pakistani expatriates along with their estimated worth. This list only shows how well they are doing in their respective fields and racism or lack of it, opportunities or lack of it in different countries. Estimates can be a few year older. Although the list is not complete because of unavailability of data, but still it is interesting.

1.      Shahid khan estimated worth 4.1 BILLION US DOLLARS U.S.A.

He owns Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League and automobile parts manufacturer Flex-N-Gate Corporation.

2.      Sir Anwer Pervaiz (estimated worth 1.5 billion us dollars.), U.K. 

 Mr. Anwar who went to U.K. during 60’s is now owner of bestway group of companies. He started from the humble beginning in U.K. After working for some low paying jobs he gathered enough capital to start “Kashmir store”. As with every other businessman, His early days in business were difficult. His customers were generally from sub continent. Owing to good quality and low prices his business started growing slowly. In 1976 sir anwar launched bestway’s wholesale warehouse in London. Now his bestway owns more than 50 cash and carries. Till now bestway has huge investment in Pakistan cement sector, banking sector. Bestway group is the owner of largest cement manufacturing plant in Pakistan. Bestway presently have stakes in cash and carry wholesale, cement manufacturing, property, retailing, milling of rice and pulses, and banking. Sir Anwar Pervaiz got many awards from government of Pakistan for investing huge amounts In Pakistan. His worth is estimated to be 1.5 billion us dollars in year 2011.

3.      Muhammad Zahoor 750 MILLION US DOLLARS Ukraine

He is British/Paksitani businessman. He owns Kyiv post. He also has huge investment in real estate.

4.      Sattar (Shimmy) Qureshi (480 million us dollars),U.S.A

Mr. Qureshi based in USA has huge investments in property. He owns and manages many properties world wide.

5.      Akmal Khushi along with his brother Afzal Khushi 400 million us dollars Glasgow (UK)

 Jacob’s & turner, manufacturing and retailing.

Both brothers are managing director Jacob’s & Turner. Akmal and Afzal Khushi who took over their father’s business in 1977 and has subsequently increased the number of stores in the UK to 70 and expanded into 62 countries around the world.

6.      Zameer Choudrey, London. U.K. (300 million us dollars)

Managing director of London based Pakistani owned cash and carry bestway. He has a share of 70% in supermarket chain buybest in UK.

7.      Nabeel Gareeb, USA CEO MEMC Electronic Mats 240 million US dollars

One of highest paid CEO in the world. He is highest paid in technology world.

8.      Fred Hassan, USA CEO Schering-plough net worth 240 million US dollars

Merger deal of Schering-plough made him rich, he got nearly 50 million dollar because of merger.

9.      Aneel Mussarat, U.K. 38, 228.30m $, 466th rich in Britain and 21st rich Asian in Britain

MCR property group

10.  Shaf Rasul, 37, SCOTLAND, 82 MILLION POUNDS, 129.11 million dollars

He earned his wealth through Information technology and property.

11.  Maqbool Rasul, Scotland, 42.51 million us dollars.

Global video chain. Maq Rasul and wife Shenaz have three children - Zahed, Syema, and Abid.

12. Nazim khan, U.K., finance and outsourcing, 110.22 million dollars

Alexander Mann Group

13.  Mo chaudhry, 94.47 million dollars

14.  Azeem Ibrahim, GLASGOW(UK), 94.47 million US dollars

15.  Afzal Khan, Bradford(UK), 62.98 million US dollars,

Bradford-based company Khan Design

16.  Muhammad Sarwar and Muhammad Ramzan, Glasgow (UK), 25.19 million US dollars

united wholesale grocers ltd. and united homestores ltd.

17.  Aamir Khan, UK, 8million US dollars boxer

18.  Mehmood Bhatti, France, 1.65million US Dollars,

 His multi-million dollar transatlantic company Bhatti is located in ten countries and had a turnover of 150 million francs

Muhammad Sarwar entrepreneur and politician

Muhammad Sarwar was born in Pakistan and then went to United Kingdom. he is an entrepreneur who owns wholesale cash and carry business. He started his entrepreneurial career at a young age. He started his first business by getting a small loan from his father-in-law. In 1982 he along with his brother, Muhammad Ramzan , founded the wholesale business named united wholesale grocers. Through this business he got the estimated worth of 16 million pounds. The brothers split the business in 2002. After the split Sarwar formed the united wholesale Scotland. Before the split the united wholesale grocers had an annual turnover of around 44 million pounds. Muhammad Sarwar is now Governor of Punjab province , Pakistan. He was educated at university of Faisalabad. He is married to Perveen Sarwar, from whom he has 3 sons and one daughter.

Arif Masood Naqvi

Arif Masood Naqvi is a Pakistani expatriate who founded Abraaj Capital, largest private equity firm in Middle East. He also founded Cupola, Pakistan’s first investment bank in 1994. Mr. Naqvi was educated at London School of Economics and worked for many international organizations including Aurthur Andersen, American Express bank.

In 1994, he went to Dubai with small amount of $50000 and founded Cupola. In 2002, he founded Abraaj Capital, which is now managing assets of more than 6 billion us dollars. Abraaj Group, as now it is known, is among fifty biggest private equity groups. Under the leadership of Mr. Naqvi, Abraaj is investing in different regions including Middle East, south Asia, and North Africa. Abraaj owns stakes in nearly two dozens companies. This equity firm has offices in different countries including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey. Companies founded by Mr. Naqvi have made more than 35 investments in 11 different countries.

His firm manages wealth of many royal families and high net worth individuals across Middle East and Pakistan.

Arif Naqvi hails from Karachi, Pakistan. He is married and has two children. Arif Naqvi along with his wife Fayeeza Naqvi helps poor and needy through Aman Foundation.