Dubai: Investcorp, the Bahrain asset manager, has taken a majority stake in one of the Saudi Arabia’s biggest ICT firms, the in Nour Internet for Communication and Information Technology Company (or NourNet).
The latter launched operations in 1998 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Nour Communications Co. NourNet began as an ISP to B2B clients and has gradually expanded to offer value-added ICT services, including cloud, managed IT services, security/cybersecurity, and data center management.
It has over 450 employees serving a client base of more than 1,200 businesses across 30 cities in the Kingdom.
Investcorp has been adding to its exposure in Saudi entities, and currently has nine such investments operating across healthcare, consumer, tech-enabled services, business services, transport and logistics, and industrial services. The firm has listed four of its Saudi businesses on Tadawul, generating over $40 billion in potential demand from their respective pre-listing exercises at that time. Investcorp’s portfolio companies employ over 23,000 employees across the Kingdom.
NourNet is Investcorp’s second investment under its recently launched Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund. “We have ambitious plans for the company, including expanding its service offerings and its geographic footprint organically and/or through acquisitions, and we look forward to working closely with its management team to contribute to its growth journey,” said Walid Majdalani, Head of Private Equity MENA and SEA at Investcorp.
We have ambitious plans for the company, including expanding its service offerings and its geographic footprint organically and/or through acquisitions.
“NourNet represents an essential building block of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030,” said Amjad A. Hafez, CEO at the Saudi firm. “It provides the full spectrum of connectivity and ICT services to meet the growing needs of Saudi Arabia’s blue-chip public and private players, to whom we remain deeply committed to provide the highest quality service.”
