Launched in 2006, the Unicorn Global Private Equity Fund I is a five-year closed-end fund that targets well-managed mid-cap companies across the consumer products, healthcare, business services and light manufacturing industries. The Fund seeks to invest in companies in the small to lower middle-market, with near-term growth potential and annual revenues in excess of US$10 million.The Unicorn Global Private Equity Fund I’s objective is to achieve mid- to long-term capital appreciation by acquiring positions in existing businesses and to create value through the use of prudent leverage, consolidation, financial restructuring, operational enhancements and the granting of management incentives.
The Fund targets investments both within and outside the GCC region, leveraging Unicorn’s strategic presence in the United States, Dubai, Malaysia and Turkey in addition to its headquarter presence in Bahrain. The Fund provides investors with the opportunity to take advantage of cyclical upturns while enjoying diversified risk on a global basis.
The Fund aims to invest primarily in management/leveraged buyouts and growth equity transactions, such as:
- Investments in private and mature companies with positive cash flows
- Acquisitions of business divisions from large companies through divestiture or spin-off
- Recapitalisation or restructuring of family-owned or closely-held businesses seeking to achieve liquidity, manage an owner’s divestiture or raise equity without going public
- Going-private transactions of small-cap public companies
- Investments in corporate revitalizations, to fund rapid internal growth
- Financial engineering (e.g. debt pay down); under-leveraged companies with quality assets or stable cash flows that can be acquired using optimum leverage, which can be subsequently paid down
- The creation of value by capitalizing on consolidation opportunities presented by the fragmented nature of certain industries across selected sectors in the region
The Fund completed its first investment in October 2006 with the acquisition of a 55% equity stake in Fujairah-based readymix concrete supplier Orimix Concrete Products LLC. In March 2007, the Fund acquired equity stakes in two US-based companies: Ellington Leather, a lifestyle handbag and leather goods company; and Precision Time, a leading provider of while-you-wait watch repair services, fashion watches and watch accessories with a rapidly expanding presence across the United States. In April 2007, the Fund completed an investment in Kuwait-based Al-Assriya Industries Holding Company (Al-Assriya), a holding company for investments in the industrial sector, primarily in Kuwait. The Fund is presently finalising the acquisition of three additional investments, based in Bahrain, Jordan and the US.
