Wafik Ben Mansour is appointed acting CEO by Dubai Investment Bank.
Over the course of more than eighteen months, Fawad Khan, the head of the investment bank Shuaa Capital located in Dubai, has resigned.
Mr. Khan resigned for “personal reasons,” the company said in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market, where its shares are traded, on Monday. “Shuraaa will provide support and ensure smooth continuity of business activities” during Mr. Khan’s three-month notice period.
Wafik Ben Mansour has been named acting chief executive by Shuaa’s board to oversee business operations in the interim.
“Wafik will lead the next phase of Shuaa capital’s optimisation process to create a growth platform and capitalise on market opportunities in the UAE and wider region,” the organization stated.
Prior to joining Shuaa in May of this year, Mr. Ben Mansour worked for 15 years as a managing director at Credit Suisse. He now leads the advisory and capital markets platform of the company, which caters to institutional clients in the Middle East and North Africa.
As per Mr. Khan’s LinkedIn profile, he worked at Shuaa for over six years, holding various positions such as head of investment banking.
In June 2022, he became the managing director of Shuaa Capital, succeeding Jassim Alseddiqi, who left to become a managing director and join the board.
One of Shuaa Capital’s largest shareholders, Mr. Alseddiqi, also repositioned his ownership of the Dubai-based investment banking and asset management firm and resigned as managing director in August.
At the time, Mr. Alseddiqi wrote on LinkedIn that the company that oversees $5 billion in assets is going through a big transition that will allow for new investors.
During the past few years, Shuaa has undergone a business transformation. At its peak, the company managed over $13 billion in assets under management (AUM).
In an August interview with The National, Mr. Khan stated that Shuaa is assessing multiple investment deals throughout the wider GCC and hopes to double its AUMs to $10 billion in the next five years.
The business is considering possible investment opportunities, especially in the real estate and hospitality industries in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two largest economies in the Arab world.
As it continues to develop and restructure its asset base, the investment manager is also looking for opportunities for its portfolio companies to divest, including public listings and partial exits through strategic investors. Mr. Khan,
Shuaa stated that in terms of possible investments, he is focusing on target businesses that have “real assets,” such as asset-backed real estate transactions, as well as deals in the shipping, industrial, and hospitality sectors.