Investcorp's roving brand builder

In 1982 Nemir Kirdar, an Iraqi-exile who built a career in banking in New York in the 1960s and in the 1970s headed Chase Manhattan's operations in the Gulf states, realized his ambition to found an investment bank dedicated to channelling Arab wealth into corporate and real estate investments in America and Europe. Over the next 16 years, that firm, Investcorp, has struggled to maintain a discreet presence in the midst of some extraordinary deal-making. The firm has completed over 70 deals together worth $12 billion. Many have been high-profile transactions simply because of the fame of the companies Investcorp has bought: Tiffany, Gucci, Saks Fifth Avenue. While the deal-makers at Investcorp have shied away from publicity, they have, in restoring such fallen brands, earned huge returns for the wealthy clients in the Gulf with which Investcorp places equity in each acquisition.

It bought Tiffany in 1984 and floated the...