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Most improved Islamic finance house |
In its short history, Bahrain’s Unicorn Investment Bank can already tick off a number of successes. Founded in 2004, it has a presence in the US, Malaysia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia (through its majority shareholding in Unicorn Capital Saudi Arabia).
The bank has established T’azur, a regional takaful company; bought Bahrain Financing Company, the oldest foreign exchange and remittance house in the GCC; and launched the Strategic Acquisition Fund, a $1 billion fund to acquire strategic stakes in commercial banks globally.
| Aamir Khan, managing director of private equity at Unicorn: Islamic finance’s rising star |
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Its core business model includes real estate, capital markets and M&A, as well as private equity, corporate finance and treasury. In 2008 it disposed of a stake in Orimix Concrete Products in the UAE, generating a return on capital of 160% and an internal rate of return of 98% for an investment it had held for less than two years. In the third quarter of 2009, Unicorn announced net profits of about $2.1