Latest news with #royalFamilies
Wamda
09-07-2025
- Business
- Wamda
BlueFive Capital closes oversubscribed round at $120 million valuation
BlueFive Capital, a UAE-based investment platform, closed its Founding Shareholders Circle round with a $120 million valuation. The round attracted 25 founding shareholders, including prominent GCC royal families, institutional investors, and finance leaders from North America, Europe, and Asia. Since launching in late 2024 by Hazem Ben-Gacem, BlueFive has amassed over $650 million in assets under management (AUM) across a growing global team spanning London, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Singapore, and Beijing. The firm was founded by Hazem Ben-Gacem, former Co-CEO of Investcorp, who grew AUM from $10B to $50B during his tenure. The company aims to bridge institutional platforms with underserved high-growth markets, positioning the GCC as a launchpad for global impact. Press release: BlueFive Capital, an investment platform originating from the GCC with a global mandate, today announced the successful closing of its Founding Shareholders Circle investment round, valuing the company at $120 million. The funding round was oversubscribed and concluded in less than six months since the company's formation, highlighting investors' confidence in BlueFive Capital's business ambitions. The founding shareholders consist of 25 institutions and family offices, including some of the most prominent GCC merchant and royal families alongside renowned finance leaders from North America, Europe and Asia. The offering has been subsequently expanded to accommodate the additional interest. Since its inception at the end of 2024, BlueFive Capital has established itself as one of the GCC's fastest-growing global asset managers and today oversees more than $650 million in AUM. The firm combines tenured leadership with a 27-person team spanning London, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Singapore and Beijing. BlueFive is founded by Hazem Ben-Gacem, one of the longest-serving professionals in global private equity. Hazem was previously co-Chief Executive Officer at Investcorp, the Middle East's largest non-sovereign private equity firm. During his 30 years at the firm, Hazem directly led investment teams in most of its world regions, while assets under management grew from $10 billion to more than $50 billion. Hazem Ben-Gacem, Founder and Chief Executive of BlueFive Capital, said: 'This overwhelming confidence from 25 blue-chip shareholders validates our team's expertise and our strategy to disrupt the value chain in high-growth financial markets. The GCC is our launchpad, but our vision is hemispheric: connecting institutional-grade platforms to underserved capital markets driving the next wave of global prosperity." BlueFive Capital's board of directors bring together an influential group of individuals representing the firm's key focus geographies of the Middle East, Southeast Asia and China. The Board is chaired by Sheikh Mohamed Bin Isa Al Khalifa, who led Bahrain's national pension fund for more than two decades. Lord Gerry Grimstone, former Minister of Investment for the United Kingdom, and Sheikh Mubarak Abdulla Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah of Kuwait serve as vice chairmen.
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
The First Income Tax in the Persian Gulf Signals a Changing Economic Reality
The concept of an income tax has long created debate and anxiety among the citizens of the fossil fuel-rich countries in the Persian Gulf. But no nation actually introduced one until last week, when Oman announced that it would apply a 5 percent tax starting from 2028 on those who make more than 42,000 Omani riyals, or around $109,000. Officials said that the new tax was intended to promote social equity and reduce the country's dependence on oil and gas, which made up around 70 percent of the state revenues last year. But Oman could also become a testing ground in the region, where the royal families that have ruled for decades have used their resource wealth to subsidize citizens' lives while granting them minimal political participation. Since oil was discovered in the Arabian Peninsula the 1930s, the Gulf's royal families have run an authoritarian form of government that involves sharing some fossil-fuel revenue their citizens through public-sector employment, subsidies and other state benefits — while keeping a significant portion of it for themselves, through mechanisms that are typically opaque. The families have combined that strategy with varying degrees of political repression, enabling them to maintain stable, generally peaceful states while limiting political participation. But that model has come under pressure over the past decade. Oil revenue has fluctuated in several Gulf countries, and their governments have also spent more. They are looking for ways to diversify their economies beyond fossil fuels. In Saudi Arabia, one of the first major policy changes by Mohammed bin Salman, now the crown prince and de facto ruler, was to cut energy subsidies. That sent citizens rushing to gas stations to fill their tanks before price increases took effect. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
