The Dubai-based Communications Development Corporation (CDC) has been appointed as the financial advisor to the recently launched Injazat Technology Fund, according to a company press release. CDC's role as financial and technical advisor is to provide due diligence on investments that are considered by the fund.
Specifically, CDC is required to review the business and financial models of companies considered for an investment by the fund, as well as determine a valuation of the target company.
Injazat is a $50 million technology venture capital fund, initiated by the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) and Gulf Finance House (GFH) in order to invest in compliance with Shari'a principles in IT, telecommunications and technology companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This is the first Islamic-structured fund in the technology sector in the region.
CDC is the Middle Eastern ownership related affiliate of Communications Equity Associates (CEA), which is a US-based investment and merchant bank, exclusively focused on the media, technology, telecommunications (TMT) and IT sectors. In its investment banking business, CEA operates through 14 global offices and has over the last 30 years served over 700 clients in 55 countries and has transacted businesses in excess of $23 billion.
In its merchant banking business, CEA manages nine private equity funds that are capitalized in excess of $800 million. CDC has since its inception in 1997 provided investment banking and corporate advisory services to its clients in the TMT sector in the MENA region and has been associated with several regional projects, including but not limited to the setting up of a pre-paid calling card company in Saudi Arabia, several investment evaluations in the IT and technology sectors, corporate advisory services for the establishment of a regional home shopping television channel and a pan Arab Arabic language satellite TV channel.
CDC has also provided strategic consulting services to a range of Middle Eastern based clients including Arabsat, who CDC advised on its migration from C band to Ku band. CDC also manages various private equity investments in the TMT sector on behalf of its Middle Eastern clients through its offshore fund management company CDC Capital Management. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
