Channel Capital Advisors, the London-headquartered private credit asset manager, has announced the acquisition of a minority interest of Magellan’s position in Beehive’s SME funding program focused on Emirati SMEs. 

This mezzanine investment supports a significant overall programme of AED600 million ($163.3 million) to finance SMEs, which enables them to scale, innovate and strengthen their contribution to the local economy. 

Crucially, this injection of institutional capital signals robust global investor confidence in the emirates' SME ecosystem and further deepens UK-GCC ties in specialty finance. 

Channel joins the structure with the incumbent funders Goldman Sachs and Magellan 1, in their continued support of further financing in the region.

The British group said it had advanced the funds to this facility and other innovation economy firms following the recent first close of its Corniche Sharia fund, a sharia-compliant investment vehicle with strong support from GCC and UK/international partners.

"This close on behalf of Corniche Sharia represents a further commitment by Channel to support the innovation economy and specialty finance in the GCC region," remarked its CEO Walter Gontarek.

“Channel Capital Advisors are proud to support Beehive Fintech, a leading digital SME funding platform in the GCC region,” he added.

Jehan Karanjia, Head of Capital Markets at Beehive, said: "We are very happy to partner with Channel – whom we have known a long time – to complete this financing. This expansion of our investor base demonstrates Beehive’s shift from P2P to institutional capital formation to support our growth in the GCC region."

"This partnership not only reinforces our sharia-compliant credentials but provides the robust institutional capital necessary to accelerate local economic growth. We are grateful to Channel and all our partners for their support in growing our lending to the local market," he added.-TradeArabia News Service