Posted on 01/23/2012 10:12:05 AM PST by Nachum
U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital LLC is looking at investing in financial services companies in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, a senior executive at the fund said on Tuesday.
“It’s fair to say there are some opportunities in financial services in the Middle Eastern region we’ve looked at and we’ll continue to look at,” Steve Pagliuca, managing director at Bain Capital, told Reuters on the sidelines of a private equity conference.
Bain Capital and Advent International recently agreed to buy the global merchant services business, which includes the payment business Worldpay, from Royal Bank of Scotland for $3 billion.
Pagliuca said Bain Capital was particularly interested in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, whose fast-growing population and strong economy presents attractive investment opportunities.
“There are large capital sources here but the region itself is intriguing – Saudi Arabia specifically is building five or six cities the size of Boston which is going to take an enormous amount of economic might to do that,” Pagliuca said.
(Reporting by Nicolas Parasie)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.