Abraaj seeks restructuring under court supervision

dubai — Private equity firm Abraaj Holdings has filed for a court-supervised restructuring in the Cayman Islands.

A statement by the Dubai-based fund management firm said that the company has made this application so that the rights of all stakeholders can be protected while the company and the joint provisional liquidators promote a consensual restructuring of the company’s obligations.

The application has been made with the support of the company’s secured creditors who have reiterated their desire for provisional liquidators to be appointed to work alongside the company to formulate and implement a restructuring of the company’s liabilities which is in the best interests of all the company’s creditors.

“This is a defining moment for everyone associated with Abraaj. Under the auspices of the Court, the situation has now been stabilised, and we can move forward to meet the firm’s commitments and restore confidence in the platform,” said Sean Cleary, chairman of Abraaj Holdings.

Founded in 2002 by Arif Naqvi, the company was reportedly managing $13.6 billion before the announcement

We have worked exhaustively and transparently to investigate the matter and address their concerns Arif Naqvi, founder of Abraaj Group

of its liquidation. Since the issue of alleged mismanagement of money of $1 billion healthcare fund came on the surface, the company was under strict scrutiny and the preliminary findings of a review by Deloitte revealed potential discrepancies in the accounting at some of the its other pools.

Arif Naqvi, founder of Abraaj Group, said the process of court supervised restructuring will take a few months.

“Since our differences with certain investors first came to light, we have worked exhaustively and transparently to investigate the matter and address their concerns,” he said.

Bloomberg reported that a fund holding a loan made by the UAE’s Jafar family to Abraaj Holdings is seeking to recover about $100 million from the embattled buyout firm through a court-run restructuring.