Chapter 19
Swicorp: Private equity in the MENA region 2009a
Rilwan Meeran sat in his office high above Dubai and gazed out at The World, the iconic mega-project that replicated a map of the world with man-made islands. It was January 2009 and he was thinking about his ongoing deal in Jordan. Going over the main points once again, he knew he would have to bring it to Swicorp’s Investment Committee soon. As he mentally enumerated the various risks of the venture, a well-established aircraft leasing business in Amman, and the mitigations his team had comprehensively detailed, Meeran realized that he was actually asking himself whether the deal ought to go ahead given the revised performance in other recent investments brought about by the economic downturn.
Looking out to the island that represented the northeastern United States, Meeran thought back to his decision, in the spring of 2006, to leave his senior position at Finstar Global Partners in New York and move halfway round the world. At the time Swicorp had made Meeran a tempting offer and he thought back to the reasons why he had decided to relocate, first, to Tunis to gain an understanding of Swicorp’s culture, spending an intensive 2 months in the Swicorp office there, and, then, to Dubai to join the Intaj private equity team. He had liked the fact that Swicorp was an international company with a regional focus already 20 years old, had an established brand, and a good mix of international and local talent. With its current ...
