Dubai: The co-chief executives of Abraaj Investment Management Ltd (AIML) are stepping down from the board as the company begins liquidation and a part sale of its fund management business to Colony Capital.
Omar Lodhi and Selcuk Yorgancioglu will no longer serve as directors of the board of AIML, however, they will continue to remain as co-chief executives of the company.
“They continue to remain as co-chief executives and continue to manage the responsibilities along with our joint provisional liquidators,” a company spokesperson said.
Last week Abraaj Group announced that it reached an agreement with New York listed Colony Capital, Inc. for the sale of Abraaj’s Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Turkey Funds management business and the Group’s Limited Partnership (LP) interests in the underlying Funds.
As part of the deal, staff in eight offices will be transferred to new owners.
Colony has also agreed to oversee, on an interim basis, other group funds that are not being acquired so that the group and all its stakeholders have a comprehensive global solution in place.
The sale of the fund management business in selected markets followed the approval by the Grand Court of Cayman Islands on Abraaj Group’s application for court supervised liquidation of Abraaj Holdings and Abraaj Investment Management Limited and appointment of joint provisional liquidators, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte.
“They [the co-chief executives] have stepped down from the board but that is a usual practice when liquidators are appointed,” an Abraaj spokesperson said.
Abraaj filed for a court-supervised restructuring and sale of its funds as it fights allegations of co-mingling of funds.
This came after investors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, commissioned an audit to investigate the alleged mismanagement of money in Abraaj’s $1.2 billion (Dh4.4 billion) health care fund. The group has denied any misuse of funds.
The company with an estimated $13 billion-plus assets under management is facing legal challenges from investors and creditors.
With the liquidation process under way in Cayman Islands and sale of Abraaj’s Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Turkey Funds management business and likely sale of other investments, the company is expected resolve its financial obligations to both investors and creditors.
