Gulf Capital, a leading alternative investment firm in the Middle East, recently won top honours at the Banker Middle East Industry Awards, the region’s leading financial event organised by CPI Financial.

Gulf Capital won the “Best SME Credit Fund” award for its flagship GC Credit Opportunities Fund I, along with the “Best Private Equity Firm” award for the fifth year in a row, said a statement from the firm.

The event was attended by prominent industry leaders and banking and finance experts from the Arab World, including the GCC, Levant and North Africa, as well as other places from around the world, it added.

Both the awards were presented to Dr Karim El Solh, the firm’s chief executive officer along with the Gulf Credit partners and Private Equity teams.

The nominations for the year’s event came from across the GCC region including the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon representing more than 200 institutions, said the statement.

On the win, Dr El Solh, said: “We are extremely proud to have our Credit and Mezzanine Fund be recognised as the leader in its field and for our Private Equity business to maintain its regional leadership position.”

Walid Cherif, managing director and head of the firm’s Gulf Credit business, said: “It has been a very active year for Gulf Credit Partners which manages the GC Credit Opportunities Fund I.”

“In less than three years, we invested more than Dh700 million ($190 million) in the region, which proves our ability to deploy substantial investments in the fast growing Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, while maintaining our discipline and achieving our target returns,” he said.

“The need for cash-flow based financing continues to grow and companies in our markets are facing a limited amount of supply of flexible and bespoke financing.  We are well positioned to address that financing gap and support growing mid-size businesses with their expansion and acquisition strategies,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service