Strategic changes at Abraaj

dubai — Abraaj on Friday announced broad changes to its governance and operating model, and the appointment of a new leadership team.

Core to the reorganisation will be the separation of AIML and Abraaj Holdings (AHI), which will be independently managed. The fund management business will continue to oversee the operations of all of Abraaj’s funds globally on behalf of leading institutional investors and manage a portfolio of investee businesses across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and Latin America.

Arif Naqvi, founder of Abraaj, has passed the reins of the fund management entity to the coCEOs in order to further grow the business. The executive leadership team at AIML will be led by Omar Lodhi and Selcuk Yorgancioglu as co-CEOs. Naqvi will focus on managing Abraaj Holdings and will retain a non-executive role as a member of the Global Investment Committee of AIML.

Lodhi and Yorgancioglu will assume their roles with immediate effect. They have each been with the group for over 10 years and were respectively partners for the group’s Asia and Turkey businesses.

Sean Cleary, chairman of the board of directors of AHI, said: “Under Arif Naqvi’s leadership, Abraaj has grown in size and scale over the past 16 years to become a leading investor in growth markets. On behalf of the board, I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his commitment and achievements.”