The Bahrain-based private equity firm Investcorp has said it is ready to ramp up investment in the United States, citing the country’s booming economy.
At the end of June, Investcorp had about $22.6 billion in assets under management. The firm has previously stated that it wants to take that to $50 billion within 5 to 7 years.
Speaking at the Investcorp Strategic Partners Conference in Paris, company chairman Mohammed Bin Mahfoodh Alardhi said U.S. economic fundamentals were currently “good for us” and he anticipated big purchases.
“Our private equity is growing there, and we are looking to see how to write bigger checks and buy bigger companies,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Friday.
Alardhi added that Investcorp’s growing real estate spend in the U.S. remained at about one billion dollars a year and was continuing to perform well. The chairman also lauded the credit business, which focuses on senior secured corporate debt, describing it as a “huge opportunity to grow.”
On any potential for the upcoming U.S. mid-term elections to disrupt the country’s red-hot economy, Alardhi was dismissive, noting that the firm had thrived through different political “seasons” in the U.S., as far back as 1982.
Since the firm’s launch in the early 1980s, the majority of Investcorp’s investments have been in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
But in August this year, the firm made a stated aim to broaden its portfolio into Asian markets, especially India and China.
“We are really taking baby steps, but we are making progress out there,” Alardhi said before adding that the firm had completed its first investment the Chinese tech sector and was on the verge of buying its first business in India.
