Description
Presentation explain abraaj strategic stakeholder engagement track.
ASSET
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder
Engagement Track
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 4
• Introduction of the Abraaj
Sustainability Council.
• Abraaj becomes one of
the 100 signatory
companies to the WEF’s
Partnering Against
Corruption Initiative (PACI).
• Establishment of the Peter
Heath Women’s
Entrepreneurship Fund at the
American University of Sharjah
(AUS) for women to develop
innovative and
high-value-added businesses.
• Our Founder is awarded the
2013 Oslo Business for Peace
Award in Norway and joins The
Giving Pledge.
• Support of the Global
Shapers community, a network
of 350+ city hubs led by
4,000+ young leaders.
• Introduction of the
Abraaj Sustainability Index
(ASI) that measures our
partner companies’
(ParCos) performance
against environmental,
social and governance (ESG)
indicators.
• Abraaj becomes an IMD
learning partner and our
Founder joins its Foundation
Board, alongside CEOs
of the world’s 50
leading companies.
• Abraaj becomes a member
of the Clinton Global Initiative
(CGI).
• Abraaj partners with
INSEAD and becomes a
founding member of the
Global Private Equity Initiative
(GPEI) to produce timely and
thought-provoking research.
• Our Founder establishes the
Aman Foundation, which
provides health services and
vocational training centers in
Pakistan.
• Partnership with Madrasati to
renovate hundreds of schools
and elevate education quality.
• Strategic partnership with
the World Economic
Forum (WEF).
• Establishment of the MSc in
Finance and Private Equity
at the LSE, the world’s only
?nance postgraduate degree
with a specialization in
private equity.
• Our ParCos endorse the
Ethical Framework for
Investment (EFI).
• Abraaj becomes a member of
the United Nations-supported
Principles for Responsible
Investment (PRI) Initiative.
• Establishment of Mustaqbali
Foundation to empower
Palestinian orphans through
education, health and career
development projects.
• Partnership with Junior
Achievement (JA), the largest
global non-pro?t dedicated to
empowering young people to
own their economic success.
• Launch of the Abraaj Group
Art Prize at Art Dubai, which
rewards artists from growth
markets on the basis of
proposals rather than
completed works of art.
The Abraaj Group is
established
2
0
0
2
• Abraaj joins the board of the Pearl
Initiative which fosters a corporate
culture of transparency and
accountability in the GCC.
• Abraaj joins the Global Impact
Investing Network (GIIN).
2
0
1
1
• Launch of Philanthropy Age
with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, promoting a new
way of giving.
• Establishment of the
Professorship in Private Equity
(PE) at The American University
in Cairo (AUC) with an
endowment fund to strengthen
research in PE and venture
capital.
• Our Founder is appointed to
the United Nations Global
Compact (UNGC) Board.
2
0
1
2
2
0
1
3
• Co-development of the Shared
Value roundtable
in Oslo with Business
for Peace.
• Launch of the Abraaj RCA
Innovation Scholarship, the
world’s largest scholarship for
postgraduate art and design
students.
2
0
1
4
2
0
0
6
-
2
0
0
7
2
0
0
8
2
0
0
9
• Launch of Wamda, the leading
portal for entrepreneurship
in MENA and a resource for
expert advice.
• Abraaj supports Trade Out of
Poverty (TOP) to tackle trade
barriers hindering the world’s
poorest countries.
• Establishment of the Abraaj
Academy with Harvard
University’s Dr. Josh Lerner as
Dean.
• Partnership with Endeavor
to expand its global footprint
by joining key Boards and
providing support, including
mentorship to high impact
entrepreneurs.
• Support of Education for
Employment (EFE), a network
of local non-pro?ts providing
youngsters with skills and
career opportunities.
• Abraaj hosts the Celebration
of Entrepreneurship (CoE)
gathering 2500+ global
stakeholders to promote
entrepreneurship.
2
0
1
0
• Establishment of the PJD Wiles
Scholarship to support ten MSc
scholarships at the London School
of Economics (LSE).
• Co-development of Art Dubai, a
global art fair recognized as one of
the leading fairs in the world, with
a total of 85 galleries from 34
countries and over 500 artists
exhibited in the 2014 edition.
A 12-Year
Journey
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 5
• Introduction of the Abraaj
Sustainability Council.
• Abraaj becomes one of
the 100 signatory
companies to the WEF’s
Partnering Against
Corruption Initiative (PACI).
• Establishment of the Peter
Heath Women’s
Entrepreneurship Fund at the
American University of Sharjah
(AUS) for women to develop
innovative and
high-value-added businesses.
• Our Founder is awarded the
2013 Oslo Business for Peace
Award in Norway and joins The
Giving Pledge.
• Support of the Global
Shapers community, a network
of 350+ city hubs led by
4,000+ young leaders.
• Introduction of the
Abraaj Sustainability Index
(ASI) that measures our
partner companies’
(ParCos) performance
against environmental,
social and governance (ESG)
indicators.
• Abraaj becomes an IMD
learning partner and our
Founder joins its Foundation
Board, alongside CEOs
of the world’s 50
leading companies.
• Abraaj becomes a member
of the Clinton Global Initiative
(CGI).
• Abraaj partners with
INSEAD and becomes a
founding member of the
Global Private Equity Initiative
(GPEI) to produce timely and
thought-provoking research.
• Our Founder establishes the
Aman Foundation, which
provides health services and
vocational training centers in
Pakistan.
• Partnership with Madrasati to
renovate hundreds of schools
and elevate education quality.
• Strategic partnership with
the World Economic
Forum (WEF).
• Establishment of the MSc in
Finance and Private Equity
at the LSE, the world’s only
?nance postgraduate degree
with a specialization in
private equity.
• Our ParCos endorse the
Ethical Framework for
Investment (EFI).
• Abraaj becomes a member of
the United Nations-supported
Principles for Responsible
Investment (PRI) Initiative.
• Establishment of Mustaqbali
Foundation to empower
Palestinian orphans through
education, health and career
development projects.
• Partnership with Junior
Achievement (JA), the largest
global non-pro?t dedicated to
empowering young people to
own their economic success.
• Launch of the Abraaj Group
Art Prize at Art Dubai, which
rewards artists from growth
markets on the basis of
proposals rather than
completed works of art.
The Abraaj Group is
established
2
0
0
2
• Abraaj joins the board of the Pearl
Initiative which fosters a corporate
culture of transparency and
accountability in the GCC.
• Abraaj joins the Global Impact
Investing Network (GIIN).
2
0
1
1
• Launch of Philanthropy Age
with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, promoting a new
way of giving.
• Establishment of the
Professorship in Private Equity
(PE) at The American University
in Cairo (AUC) with an
endowment fund to strengthen
research in PE and venture
capital.
• Our Founder is appointed to
the United Nations Global
Compact (UNGC) Board.
2
0
1
2
2
0
1
3
• Co-development of the Shared
Value roundtable
in Oslo with Business
for Peace.
• Launch of the Abraaj RCA
Innovation Scholarship, the
world’s largest scholarship for
postgraduate art and design
students.
2
0
1
4
2
0
0
6
-
2
0
0
7
2
0
0
8
2
0
0
9
• Launch of Wamda, the leading
portal for entrepreneurship
in MENA and a resource for
expert advice.
• Abraaj supports Trade Out of
Poverty (TOP) to tackle trade
barriers hindering the world’s
poorest countries.
• Establishment of the Abraaj
Academy with Harvard
University’s Dr. Josh Lerner as
Dean.
• Partnership with Endeavor
to expand its global footprint
by joining key Boards and
providing support, including
mentorship to high impact
entrepreneurs.
• Support of Education for
Employment (EFE), a network
of local non-pro?ts providing
youngsters with skills and
career opportunities.
• Abraaj hosts the Celebration
of Entrepreneurship (CoE)
gathering 2500+ global
stakeholders to promote
entrepreneurship.
2
0
1
0
• Establishment of the PJD Wiles
Scholarship to support ten MSc
scholarships at the London School
of Economics (LSE).
• Co-development of Art Dubai, a
global art fair recognized as one of
the leading fairs in the world, with
a total of 85 galleries from 34
countries and over 500 artists
exhibited in the 2014 edition.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 2
THE
BEGINNING
ESTABLISHING
ASSET
Social Investing Program
(SIP) 11
From a Social Investing Program to a
Stakeholder Engagement Model 21
A Long-Term Approach to Social
Investments 24
1 2
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 3
SUSTAINED
IMPACT
THE RIPPLE
EFFECT
Entrepreneurship 36
Art & Innovation 38
The Next Generation 42
Thought Leadership 46
When ESG meets ASSET: Building
Sustainable Businesses and
Communities 55
Value Creation in Action 56
3 4
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 4
Stakeholder engagement
in its simplest form is about
realizing that a company
can’t be an island of
excellence in an ocean of
turbulence.
Arif Naqvi
Founder & Group Chief Executive, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 5
The Abraaj Group was established in accordance with
one strong belief: the promise of growth markets. We
saw the enormous potential of private sector growth
in these markets and as such, built a private equity
?rm embedded at the center of critical growth drivers
including: young populations entering the workforce
and marketplace, rising demand for consumer-based
products and services, and the need for infrastructure
development.
We pride ourselves for having evolved a private equity
model grounded in macro fundamentals, deeply
rooted in our markets and in touch with solid micro
opportunities on the ground. By investing capital in
mid-market businesses, choosing the right partners,
implementing strong risk mitigation and consistent
investment processes, we have grown today to
become one of the leading growth markets private
equity ?rms in the world.
The Abraaj Group was born in Dubai, in 2002, in
an effort to be strategically positioned around the
markets we were operating in at the time. The Middle
East, North Africa, South Asia (MENASA) region
formed the core of Abraaj’s ?rst investments, which
ABRAAJ TODAY
quickly reaf?rmed the potential of growth markets
as a destination for private equity investing. Today,
Abraaj has expanded far beyond the MENASA region
to include Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey
and Central Asia, in addition to South East Asia. The
Firm manages c. US$ 7.5 billion across 20+ regional,
sector and country-speci?c Funds, and has realized
c. US$ 4.9 billion from over 80 full and partial exits.
We have made over 200 investments and currently
have holdings in 130 Partner Companies (ParCos).
Abraaj has more than 300 employees with 25+ of?ces
spread across six regional hubs in Dubai, Istanbul,
Mexico City, Mumbai, Nairobi and Singapore and
two global investor coverage of?ces in London and
New York.
Abraaj’s journey started with less than US$ 100,000
of our Founder’s own savings. We adopted an
investment philosophy that capitalized on the
signi?cant role private equity can play in driving
sustainable impact and the growth potential within
these largely untapped regions. From that point on,
Abraaj has been setting the standard for investing
in growth markets and its unique philosophy and
approach is what has made all the difference.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 6
2014
$60mn AuM
One Of?ce
19 employees
$3mn share capital
2002
25+ of?ces, across 6
regional hubs
300+ employees
$1.5bn share capital
$7.5bn AuM
A 12-Year Journey
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 7
Since inception, we have seen our role as going
beyond that of a leading private equity ?rm providing
its investors and shareholders with risk-adjusted
returns well above industry benchmarks. We worked
towards pioneering a model where shareholder
returns were primary, but where the ability to
create deep-rooted and sustainable changes in the
economic landscape within our markets was as
critical a benchmark of success as pure ?nancial
returns.
Our philosophy is simple: we refuse to operate in a
silo. We measure our success with the degree to
which both our businesses and the communities
prosper in parallel. Our markets which are rich
in opportunities, are equally in need of critical
investments in areas such as education, infrastructure
and healthcare; failing that, they will not reach their full
potential.
Whereas governments have long been held
accountable for citizens’ and nations’ wellbeing,
the private sector today is increasingly relied upon
to put its expertise to the bene?t of society. Global
challenges are becoming more complex and there
is an urge for collective multi-stakeholder action
and alignment. Businesses today need to think in
terms of decades rather than days, and incorporate
sustainability measures into their operational
processes and collective identity.
Frederic Sicre
Managing Director
The Abraaj Group
As with any journey, ours has been an evolutionary
one that has led us to being at the forefront of a
movement that compels businesses like ours to be
active and responsible agents of value creation. We
have always been committed to improving the state
of the world, as is demonstrated by the nomination
of our Founder for the Business for Peace Award in
2012.
In our experience, institutionalizing stakeholder
engagement as a core value and a strategic objective,
with clear performance indicators, is key to creating
long-term value. We are convinced more than
ever of the tremendous role businesses can play
in driving positive change. In line with that belief,
we have chosen to share the story of our 12-year
journey resulting in establishing sustainable business
practices as a strategic management approach within
our Firm and the companies that we invest in.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 8
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 9
THE BEGINNING
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 10
My vision is to
spread a culture of
giving among every
employee at Abraaj.
Arif Naqvi
Founder & Group Chief Executive, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 11
HEALTHCARE
Access, affordability and cost of healthcare services
continue to represent a major challenge in growth
markets. We therefore complemented our market-
oriented investment strategy by making healthcare
a cornerstone of our social investment portfolio from
the start.
To do so, we partnered with multiple organizations
on the expansion of emergency care facilities and the
provision of pediatric wards and specialized facilities.
Our support of the Aga Khan University Hospital in
Pakistan, the Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation
of the Disabled and Shanti Avedna Sadan Hospice
in India enabled the renovation of key facilities
and enhanced the three entities’ ability to absorb
additional patients and provide quality health services.
Our partnerships with the Shaukat Khanum Memorial
Trust and Palestine Children’s Relief Fund ensured
both entities could provide affordable or free medical
services and interventions to marginalized patients.
We furthered our commitment to the healthcare
sector through Tamkeen (Foresight) in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), which organized a mobility
training program instilling greater independence and
con?dence in children, as well as through Sightsavers
International, which expanded their facilities and their
provision of quality medical services and surgeries to
thousands of marginalized patients.
Beyond directly funding our partners’ expansion and
service provision, we also enabled the pooling of
resources for key entities. For example, we supported
initiatives to raise over US$ 3 million for the King
Hussein Cancer Foundation, enabling it to serve
thousands of patients on a yearly basis.
Realizing the importance of supporting scienti?c
research on the health challenges facing our markets,
we also partnered with several organizations in the
United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.
These partnerships enabled the production of world-
class medical research on the cognitive challenges
faced by children with Down syndrome, as well as
the prevention and treatment of disability and mental
health disorders.
During our initial phase of growth, we contributed to relief efforts in natural and humanitarian emergencies
and directed our social investments towards capacity building in critical sectors in our markets, namely
healthcare, education and social development.
SOCIAL INVESTING
PROGRAM (SIP)
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 12
Top: Shake The Net uses
football as a vehicle for
youth development and
empowerment among
underprivileged children
Left: Ruwwad helps
disadvantaged communities
overcome marginalization
through youth activism, civic
engagement, scholarships,
workshops and education
Right: Room to Read
partners with local
communities to provide
quality educational
opportunities by establishing
libraries and creating local
language children’s literature
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 13
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 14
Emergency
Relief
Social
Development
Education
Healthcare
500,000+
lives directly
and indirectly
impacted
$27mn
invested in
35+ organizations
Sectors of Strategic
Social Investments
> Dubai Center for Special
Needs, United Arab Emirates
> Dubai Foundation for Women
and Children, United Arab
Emirates
> Edhi Foundation, Pakistan
> Family Education Services
Foundation, Pakistan
> Hoping Foundation, Palestine
> Habitat for Humanity, Jordan
> Lebanese Welfare Association
for the Handicapped,
Lebanon
> Mala3eb, Jordan
> Manzil, United Arab Emirates
> PACES, Palestine
> Adana Deaf Research Center, Turkey
> Aga Khan University Hospital,
Pakistan
> Foundation for AIDS Research, Global
> King Hussein Cancer Center, Jordan
> Palestine Children’s Relief Fund,
Palestine
> Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation
of the Disabled, Pakistan
> Prince Salman Center for Disability
Research, Saudi Arabia
> Shanti Avedna Sadan Hospice, India
> Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust,
Pakistan
> Sightsavers International, Pakistan
> St. John Eye Hospital, Palestine
> Tamkeen (Foresight), United Arab
Emirates
> Al Noor Training Center for
Children with Special Needs,
Pakistan
> Dominic Simpson Memorial
Trust, Palestine
> Dubai Cares, Global
> Madrasati, Jordan
> Room to Read, South Asia
> Schools of Excellence,
Pakistan
> Planet Finance, Morocco
> Ruwwad, MENA
> Save the Children, Egypt
> Society for Sustainable
Development, Pakistan
> The Dhaka Project,
Bangladesh
> UNDP Live, Lebanon
> UNICEF, India
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 15
EDUCATION
Education is key to boosting opportunities for
integration and employment in what is becoming an
increasingly knowledge-based economy. Early on in
our journey, we invested heavily in enhancing basic
education infrastructure through our day-to-day
business and our social investment portfolio, which
included a variety of unique and impactful initiatives.
One among these initiatives was our support for
Room to Read in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka,
which furthered the organization’s global efforts to
develop literacy skills and a reading habit among
children. Abraaj’s contributions led to the creation of
15 libraries, which made 12,000+ books available
to close to 4,000 students within one year. Our
partnership with Schools of Excellence also enabled
the creation of several campuses and the provision of
scholarships for more than 100 children in Pakistan.
Parallel to this, we created scholarships through
the Dominic Simpson Memorial Trust in Palestine,
covering the cost of studies for several girls, of which
the ?rst three recipients enrolled in university in 2009.
Our commitment to the educational ecosystem
expanded to Jordan, where we supported Madrasati.
This initiative was launched by Her Majesty Queen
Rania and brings together businesses, non-
governmental organizations and local communities
alongside the Ministry of Education to directly tackle
the pressing need for quality education by enhancing
infrastructure and upgrading educational tools and
management among Jordan’s most marginalized
establishments. Our support was crucial for Madrasati
to fully upgrade and renovate 300 schools across the
country, while simultaneously introducing trainings
on technology, health awareness as well as extra-
curricular activities. By kick-starting the program, we
played a cornerstone role in making formal education
an achievable target for all Jordanian children.
Alongside our business activities in Egypt, we
supported Save the Children, an international charity
organization involved in emergency and long-term
relief as well as development projects. We focused
our efforts on a single school in most urgent need for
support. The project we selected was designed to
improve the quality of education for children between
6-14 years of age in three ways: through creating
constructive learning environments, strengthening
policies through innovative research and creating
awareness in communities to demand quality
education. Through Save the Children’s mission of
inspiring breakthroughs in the way the world treats
children, this program directly bene?ted 5,500
children and 150 teachers in just one year.
To simultaneously address issues of access to basic
healthcare and education we partnered with Dubai
Cares globally, a foundation that works in countries
with major de?ciencies in primary education. By
targeting the underlying causes preventing children
from accessing quality education, Dubai Cares
adopts a holistic approach which includes addressing
schools’ infrastructure, sanitation and hygiene, health
and nutrition as well as quality of the educational
experience in its entirety. The organization and its
work have grown to positively affect over 10 million
children in 35 countries since its inception in 2007.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 16
We have always believed
businesses have the
responsibility to engage
with communities and help
shape the markets in which
they operate.
Frederic Sicre
Managing Director, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 17
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
In an effort to cultivate socially responsible
citizens, we partnered with Ruwwad, a community
empowerment organization focused on youth
activism, civic engagement and education. Our ?ve-
year partnership with Ruwwad helped it reach 725
marginalized young people across the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) region, enabling them to
further their education and become active citizens.
To foster a healthier generation of children through
physical education across the MENA region, we
contributed funds to train coaches in basketball,
football and community service through Palestine’s
PACES Foundation. The program has created 615
positions for coaches in Lebanon, Jordan and
Palestine who were able to train over 3,400 children.
In Bangladesh, our support of The Dhaka Project’s
“Food for Thought” program enabled the organization
to provide nutritious meals for 600 children. Beyond
improving these children’s nutrition, the promise of
two meals a day on holidays and weekends carried
students through their studies for a full year, as it
added an extra incentive to stay enrolled in schools.
Given the lack of social and economic integration
that people with disabilities experience across growth
markets, we supported several interventions geared
towards countering such a situation. These included
our partnership with the Family Education Services
Foundation, which saw the creation of training centers
and two schools tailored to the needs of people with
hearing impairments in Hyderabad and Karachi. The
established centers implemented key interventions,
including teaching parents the use of sign language
and enabling people with hearing impairments to
autonomously run ?ve restaurants which in turn
created 150 jobs. Efforts in this area also included
our partnership with Manzil, an organization focused
on the social and economic integration of people
with disabilities in the UAE. Manzil students received
training, which enabled them to start their own
projects or obtain jobs.
Broader development and social integration efforts
included support of Planet Finance (Morocco) which
enhanced the capacity of 50 women to enter the
job market or start their own businesses. Efforts also
included supporting Habitat for Humanity in Jordan
which led to the creation of a self-built housing
project for 99 families in Ghor Al Sa? located south
of the Dead Sea. Our funds provided the necessary
capital to allow families to build their way out of
poverty, taking affordable loans that are repaid without
interest charges. Each new house brought greater
opportunities for families to lead safe, healthy and
productive lives.
During the ?rst phase of our journey, our
contributions amounted to US$ 27 million,
directly impacting the lives of more than 48,000
citizens and indirectly impacting an additional
500,000+ citizens. This was made possible
through partnerships with 38 community-based
organizations across Sub-Saharan Africa, South
Asia and the MENA region which had a regional
and global impact.
Our Social Investing Program served as the
foundation for a more solid, strategic and
consistent integration and institutionalization
of responsibility into our business. With our
rapid growth, and in line with the nature of The
Abraaj Group as a Firm, we knew it was time to
take stock of what we were doing and where
we wanted to go, and develop our strategy
further. This led to the establishment of a robust
governance structure that would oversee
Abraaj’s social investments, how we engage with
our stakeholders and communicate our expertise
to the outside world.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 18
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 19
ESTABLISHING
ASSET
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 20
Government
5% of The
Abraaj
Group’s
gross
management
fees
5% of
employees’
annual
bonuses on
a voluntary
basis
A minimum
of 5 days of
employees’
time a year
5+5+5
NGOs
$100mn+
invested
volunteered
10,000hrs
Building
sustainable
communities
Civil Society
Our Stakeholder
Engagement Model
Academia
Businesses Employees
Our Stakeholder
Engagement Model
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 21
While many companies worldwide have structured
their giving through a corporate foundation, we
deliberately chose to institutionalize ours through
the Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track
(ASSET). ASSET is central to our business and
implements the 5+5+5 model, a unique program
that drives collective action towards transforming our
markets and unleashing their potential. Our objective
was to shift our engagement from a pure social
investing model to a stakeholder engagement model
that would focus on engaging media, academia,
NGOs, governments, youth and civil society with the
goal to create positive change in our markets.
Through ASSET’s 5+5+5 model, we contribute
5% of the Firm’s gross management fees, 5% of
employee bonuses (on a voluntary basis) and a
minimum of 5 days of volunteer work a year per
employee towards stakeholder engagement.
Since its establishment, our 5+5+5 program has
been a cornerstone of the Firm’s philosophy, while
its impact has been extensive globally. Through a
multi-stakeholder and comprehensive approach,
the program unites our staff and continues to thrive
across our regional of?ces. By engaging every
Abraaj employee, we are able to ensure that our
stakeholder engagement model adheres to the
same level of quality and ef?ciency as our day-to-
day operations.
We consolidated our social investment portfolio
to resemble a private equity approach; long-term
partnerships were established shifting us towards
patient and strategic investments that are aligned
with our core business and are geared towards
creating sustainable shared value.
FROM A SOCIAL
INVESTING PROGRAM
TO A STAKEHOLDER
ENGAGEMENT MODEL
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 22
Top: Abraaj held an
internal fundraising
drive to support victims
of Typhoon Haiyan in
November 2013, which
was directed towards
rebuilding schools
Left: Staff participated in
the annual Dubai Cares
Walk for Education to
support global projects
Right: Our Nairobi
team contributed
to environmental
sustainability by planting
2,200 indigenous trees
at Karura Forest and
maintaining them for three
years
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 23
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 24
3.5mn+
School meals served
600,000+
Emergency interventions
100
Ambulances equipped
for life-saving
interventions
1808
Students enrolled
135
Higher and vocational
education graduates
400
Orphans received
adequate treatment
153
Bene?ted from
rehabilitation services
34
Interns and apprentices placed
100
Youth career skills enhanced
Mustaqbali
Foundation
Aman
Foundation
Healthcare
Services
Education and
Vocational
Training
Career
Development
and Economic
Empowerment
AMANHEALTH
Nutrition
Services
3
,
000+
Youth trained
and enrolled in
13 trades
2
,
500
Graduates placed
locally and
internationally
AMANTECH
A LONG-TERM APPROACH TO
SOCIAL INVESTMENTS
Our belief in the power of a long-term approach
drove us to partner with an organization that
applies a private equity model to tackling poverty,
the Acumen Fund. Acumen represents a point
of convergence between a traditional private
equity ethos and social investing by making equity
investments available to social businesses. By doing
so, Acumen allows these businesses to expand
their operations as well as simultaneously create
?nancial and social value. Aside from investing in
Acumen, our investment professionals assisted Chief
Executive Of?cers and Chief Financial Of?cers in its
portfolio with pro-bono advice and training enabling
them to develop effective ?nancial forecasting
systems.
The creation of Mustaqbali Foundation is another
example of long-term value creation. Abraaj
collaborated with the Welfare Association, the
largest citizen-led foundation in Palestine, and
set up Mustaqbali in 2009 with a US$ 10 million
endowment to support 1800+ Palestinian orphans.
Mustaqbali’s unique model tracks the evolution of
each speci?c child, year after year, continuously
addressing their social, health, educational and
career needs from kindergarten until they reach
the age of 22. As of 2014, Mustaqbali enrolled 477
children in pre-school and ?rst grade, included 1331
students in their remedial education, graduated 60
children from higher education programs and 75
children from vocational training. On the employment
front, the career skills of 100 youth were enhanced
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 25
3.5mn+
School meals served
600,000+
Emergency interventions
100
Ambulances equipped
for life-saving
interventions
1808
Students enrolled
135
Higher and vocational
education graduates
400
Orphans received
adequate treatment
153
Bene?ted from
rehabilitation services
34
Interns and apprentices placed
100
Youth career skills enhanced
Mustaqbali
Foundation
Aman
Foundation
Healthcare
Services
Education and
Vocational
Training
Career
Development
and Economic
Empowerment
AMANHEALTH
Nutrition
Services
3
,
000+
Youth trained
and enrolled in
13 trades
2
,
500
Graduates placed
locally and
internationally
AMANTECH
through comprehensive training and capacity
development and several startups have been
seeded through the program, thus improving the
quality of life of over 60 families. Mustaqbali has also
provided sustained access to basic healthcare and
awareness services to all families included in the
program.
Additionally, the Aman Foundation was set up in
2008 by Arif Naqvi and his family with seed capital
of US$ 100 million to champion dignity and choice
for the underserved through strategic interventions
in healthcare, nutrition and education. The impact
of Aman can be seen everywhere in Karachi. On the
healthcare front, AMANHEALTH’s ?eet counts 100
ambulances equipped for life-saving interventions
and is operating with a response rate of 8 minutes in
the world’s third most populated city. On the nutrition
front, over 3.5 million healthy and nutritious meals
have been distributed to deprived communities
outside Karachi. Finally, Aman developed a world-
class vocational training center called AMANTECH.
Today, over 3,000 students are enrolled in 13
different trades and are being placed in jobs with
the aim to make them active contributors to their
society.
Having solidi?ed the foundations on which
ASSET could thrive, we focused our engagement
strategy on social and economic expansion core
to growth markets and to our Firm.
This led us to focus on four key areas: building
entrepreneurship ecosystems, celebrating art
and innovation, empowering future generations
and sharing our thought leadership across our
global network. Through this strategy, we have
involved and empowered a wide network of
stakeholders, and positively impacted individuals,
organizations and communities across growth
markets.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 26
Top: Mustaqbali
Foundation’s mission is
to empower orphans to
live a ful?lling life and to
help young entrepreneurs
realize their business
ambitions
Left: Aman Foundation
is creating healthcare
ecosystems with outreach
initiatives targeted
towards essential
healthcare interventions
Right: AMANTECH
transforms lives by
providing vocational
training and facilitating
employment opportunities
locally and internationally
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 27
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 28
Strategic Stakeholder
Engagement 2009-Present
Social Investments
2002-2008
Entrepreneurship
Art & Innovation
Next Generation
Thought Leadership
Education
Emergency Relief
Healthcare
Social Development
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Brunei
Singapore
Sri Lanka
India
Bangladesh
Nepal
Pakistan
Kazakhstan
Oman
Yemen
Kenya
United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
Kuwait
Jordan
Turkey
Switzerland
United
Kingdom
Norway
Palestine
Egypt
Tunisia
Morocco
Mexico
North America
Qatar
South East Asia
Latin America
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Asia
Lebanon
Abraaj Today
25+ of?ces, 6 hubs
200+ investments
130 partner companies
300+ investors
US$7.5bn assets under management (AuM)
20+ regional, sector and country-speci?c Funds
Our Global
Stakeholder Impact
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 29
Strategic Stakeholder
Engagement 2009-Present
Social Investments
2002-2008
Entrepreneurship
Art & Innovation
Next Generation
Thought Leadership
Education
Emergency Relief
Healthcare
Social Development
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Brunei
Singapore
Sri Lanka
India
Bangladesh
Nepal
Pakistan
Kazakhstan
Oman
Yemen
Kenya
United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
Kuwait
Jordan
Turkey
Switzerland
United
Kingdom
Norway
Palestine
Egypt
Tunisia
Morocco
Mexico
North America
Qatar
South East Asia
Latin America
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Asia
Lebanon
Abraaj Today
25+ of?ces, 6 hubs
200+ investments
130 partner companies
300+ investors
US$7.5bn assets under management (AuM)
20+ regional, sector and country-speci?c Funds
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 30
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 31
SUSTAINED
IMPACT
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 32
An entrepreneurial
ecosystem is necessary
for sustaining the growth
rates global growth
markets are witnessing.
Growth will come from
the private sector, and the
private sector has to start
somewhere - and usually
that somewhere is small
enterprises.
Mustafa Abdel-Wadood
Partner, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 33
5+5+5
Next
Generation
Thought
Leadership
Art and
Innovation
Entrepreneurship
Building on our Social Investing
Program, we evolved the 5+5+5
model to empower the potential of
our stakeholders along four areas
key to growth markets.
Sectors of
Impact
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 34
Top: Abraaj seed
funded and mentored
Recyclobekia, the ?rst
student-led startup
in MENA focusing on
e-waste recycling
Left: Celebration of
Entrepreneurship was
held in November 2010,
gathering 2500+ global
stakeholders
Right: The Firm hosted
Endeavor’s International
Selection Panels to
mentor high-impact
entrepreneurs
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 35
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 36
13,000+ students supported and
mentored across MENA
3,000 students will be trained in
Kenya and Nigeria
Engaged 2500+ stakeholders around
entrepreneurship
Endeavor entrepreneurs’ job creation
capacity expanded from 5,300+ to 16,000
Endeavor entrepreneurs’ revenue generation
increased from $290mn to $600mn
The American
University
in Cairo
5+5+5
3,500 users
150,000+ atoms of content
Supporting 50 women in developing
innovative businesses
Entrepreneurship
9,000+
entrepreneurs
impacted
$20mn
invested
Wamda.com
Celebration of
Entrepreneurship
American
University
of Sharjah
Junior
Achievement
Endeavor
Our Impact on
Entrepreneurship
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 37
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Given the essential role it plays in economic
expansion, job creation and ultimately building
sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurship is naturally
a key focus of our engagement strategy. The
development of ecosystems that foster innovative
entrepreneurship across growth markets is well under
way and we have contributed major milestones
towards that through various commitments.
Our partnership with Endeavor, a global non-pro?t
organization dedicated to encouraging ‘high-impact
entrepreneurship’ in growth markets is one of many
examples. Abraaj played an active role in Endeavor’s
expansion from 2010 to 2014, helping it grow from
three to nine countries, while also leveraging its
network to recruit board members and mentors.
Abraaj executives sit on the boards of ?ve key
Endeavor chapters, namely the Global, United Arab
Emirates, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia boards. As
of 2014, thanks to Abraaj’s support, Endeavor’s 164
companies expanded their revenues from US$ 290 to
US$ 600 million and their job creation capacity from
5,300 to 16,000 jobs.
To encourage entrepreneurs early in their
development we partnered with Junior Achievement
(JA), the world’s largest organization dedicated to
educating students about workforce readiness,
entrepreneurship and ?nancial literacy through
experiential and hands-on programs that leverage
private sector volunteers. Abraaj executives’
participation in JA’s global board as well as various
national boards has translated into reaching
thousands of students across our markets.
In an effort to grow a cadre of women entrepreneurs,
we established the Peter Heath Women’s
Entrepreneurship Fund at the American University
of Sharjah (AUS) in 2013. The Fund will support 50
women in developing new, innovative and high-value-
added businesses over ?ve years.
In 2010, we hosted our Celebration of
Entrepreneurship (CoE) which gathered 2500+ global
stakeholders for the ?rst time in the MENA region.
CoE totally energized the entrepreneurial community,
and further developed it into an ecosystem through
our launch of Wamda, the region’s ?rst and leading
online resource for entrepreneurs. The portal gathers
thousands of online users and provides them with
over 150,000 pieces of content. Today, Wamda
serves as an entrepreneurship ecosystem activator,
as it leads media awareness around startups and
entrepreneurs, conducts community-building
efforts and established a research lab to promote
entrepreneurship across the region. The organization
also serves as a bridge between the MENA and
global entrepreneurship ecosystems, facilitating and
amplifying meaningful connections between driving
forces.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 38
5+5+5
$17mn
invested
60+
artists
directly
supported
Art and
Innovation
Royal College
of Art
25 artists and innovators from around
growth markets will gain post-graduate
degrees in design & innovation
Venice
Biennale
Brought the ?rst Pan-Arab exhibition
at the Biennale in partnership with
Edge of Arabia
Art Dubai
Hosted 70 museum groups, 400+
curators and museum representatives
and 25,000 visitors
Featured the work of 500+ artists from
around the world. 85 galleries represented
from over 34 countries
Abraaj
Group
Art Prize
26 artists and 10 curators empowered
to exhibit in international fairs and
world-class museums
Artworks loaned to: Sydney Biennale,
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Museum of Arts and Design, NY
Our Impact on
Art & Innovation
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 39
ART & INNOVATION
Through our extensive experience in growth
markets, we knew that necessity alone could not
drive entrepreneurial forces and that it must be
paired with strong local identities, open minds,
innovation and creativity. This has been one of the
main reasons behind our support for the arts, which
we acknowledge as a key driver of value creation.
Abraaj has co-developed Art Dubai into what is
today recognized as one of the leading art fairs in
the world. The fair has become a cornerstone of the
global contemporary art community and continues
to thrive by creating regional champions through the
Abraaj Group Art Prize (AGAP) since 2009. AGAP
is the only art prize speci?c to growth markets and
rewards proposals, rather than completed works of
art. Over the past six years, 36 artists and curators
have been rewarded, and the Abraaj collection has
grown to 26 works of art by 2014, thus establishing
Abraaj as a leading corporate patron of the Arts
globally.
Stemming from our commitment to expanding
the MENA region’s art scene and strengthening
indigenous culture, we also became a principal
patron of Edge of Arabia, an organization that
supports contemporary Saudi Arabian artists. Our
collaboration has brought us to the Venice Biennale
in 2011 where for the ?rst time in its history a pan-
Arab pavilion displayed its works.
To further our mission of empowering artists’
potential, we launched the ground-breaking Abraaj
Royal College of Art (RCA) Innovation Scholarship
in 2014 which will support 25 outstanding artists
from across growth markets in their quest to study
at the RCA. The RCA is the world’s oldest and most
in?uential university of art and design. Its alumni
include David Hockney, Tracy Emin, Christopher
Bailey, Ridley Scott, Zandra Rhodes and James
Dyson. More than 67% of RCA alumni pursue
entrepreneurial careers upon their graduation, and
so are able to capitalize on the role the art and
creative sectors play in job creation and economic
expansion.
As the largest international scholarship program in
the creative postgraduate sector, each Abraaj RCA
Innovation Scholar will undertake their studies in
various ?elds, from ceramics to textiles, to animation.
The ?rst cohort of Abraaj Scholars are from Mexico,
Turkey, Kazakhstan, India and Thailand and these
creative leaders will in turn use the transformative
powers of their RCA education to positively impact
the life and culture of their home countries.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 40
s
t
i
l
l
l
o
w
r
e
s
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 41 Left: FIRE/CAST/DRAW
by Rayyane Tabet, Abraaj
Group Art Prize 2013
winning artist
Middle: The Miraculous
Lives of This and That by
Huma Mulji, Abraaj Group
Art Prize 2013 winning
artist
Bottom: Art Dubai lines-
up around 90 galleries
from around the world
every year
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 42
THE NEXT GENERATION
We actively work towards empowering youth to be
positive contributors in their communities, as enabling
tomorrow’s leaders to ful?ll their potential will sustain
the growth of our markets. Stemming from this belief,
we have launched a series of national, regional and
global partnerships to connect and empower the next
generation.
As part of our partnership with Education for
Employment (EFE), an initiative that provides youth with
the skills and opportunities necessary to build fruitful
careers, 195 Tunisian men and women were provided
with language training, 99% of whom were placed
in jobs. Through EFE’s Maghreb Startup Initiative we
also supported 13 startups, one of which (Chifco)
was chosen to compete in the Intel Global Challenge.
Three of our senior executives sit on EFE’s regional
and global boards, providing their strategic guidance
to the organization’s expansion.
In meeting young people’s aspirations to undertake
their studies at leading institutions, we established
two unique partnerships with the London School of
Economics (LSE): The PJD Wiles Scholarship and
the MSc in Finance and Private Equity. The PJD Wiles
Scholarship was awarded to 52 students who earned
Master’s degrees in diverse ?elds of specialization
between 2006 and 2011. The MSc in Finance and
Private Equity was launched in 2009, creating the
world’s only ?nance postgraduate degree with an
integrated specialization in the study of private equity.
The program graduated 132 students from around
the world, 58 of whom are actively pursuing careers in
the ?nancial sector. We also invested in The American
University in Cairo’s (AUC) Abraaj Group Professorship
in Private Equity, which has offered courses to 100+
students on business ?nance and private equity and
where our executives offered their insights on topics
such as investment analysis and the role of private
equity in economic growth.
To engage with youth and empower them on their
journey to leadership, we became a partner of the
Global Shapers Community in 2013, a network
of over 4,000 young leaders under the age of 30
across 350+ city hubs, and who are exceptional
in their potential, achievement and drive to make a
contribution to their communities. Abraaj’s support,
through our network and mentorship, enables the
Global Shapers to have impact in various sectors and
allows them to get a seat at the table when it comes
to global dialogue.
As of 2014, Abraaj held 20 knowledge-exchange
sessions with Global Shapers, and personally met
over 350 of them across 6 regions. We regularly
include youth perspectives into our events, by inviting
Global Shapers to attend and to speak on various
panels with global leaders. Over 100 Global Shapers
have requested speci?c mentorship from Abraaj
executives and will be connected with the relevant
experts across the world in 2015. Finally, we have
launched a “Growth Markets Grant” that will reward
at least 6 regional projects aimed at solving a critical
issue in select areas such as healthcare, anti-
corruption & security, employment, infrastructure or
education.
All of our markets are distinctive by one common feature, which is the age of their
population; they are young, aspirational and vibrant. Global Shapers is all about
empowered young people that are going to make a difference and we want to be
able to understand and help them on their journey into the future and enable it in any
way we can.
Arif Naqvi
Founder & Group Chief Executive, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 43
Our Impact on The
Next Generation
132 graduates, 50+ of whom are
pursuing careers in the ?nancial sector
50+ MSc scholarships awarded
In Cairo, participants have completed 64
hours of football training and 64 hours of
literacy classes through the pilot program
In Karachi, K-Electric organized youth
leagues that gave 1,400 underprivileged
children a platform on which to perform
The American
University
in Cairo
5+5+5
47 interviews conducted with Arab
role models globally to inspire
underprivileged youth
100+ students educated on business
?nance and private equity
Empowered 4,000+ young leaders
under the age of 30 across 350+
city hubs
Next
Generation
6,500
directly and
indirectly
impacted
$10mn
invested
Education for
Employment
195 young adults entered the job
market,13 startups seeded
Training and placing 145 unemployed
youth from Morocco and Tunisia
The American
University
in Cairo
London
School of
Economics
Global
Shapers
Arab
Excellence
Shake
the Net
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 44
Top: Abraaj RCA Innovation
Scholars (2014 cohort) with
Sajid Javid, UK Secretary
of State for Culture, Media
and Sport, and Arif Naqvi,
Founder and Group Chief
Executive, The Abraaj Group
Note: The ?fth Scholar was
not available at the time of this
picture
Left: Education for
Employment hosts Job
Placement Trainings across
the MENA region
Right: Global Shapers
Annual Curators Meeting
2014, supported by The
Abraaj Group
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 45
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 46
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Engaging with global thought leaders enables us to
constantly enhance our sustainability framework,
allowing us to stay ahead of the curve. To ensure
that we remain at the forefront of development in
the corporate sustainability ?eld, we established the
Abraaj Sustainability Council in 2013. The Council
is an independent advisory body comprising eight
eminent ?gures from various disciplines that acts as
our sounding board with regards to our sustainability
management framework and holds us accountable.
Being at the front and center of regional and global
dialogue is a necessary step for changing the
mindsets of our stakeholders and leading the world
towards impactful growth. ASSET’s comprehensive
stakeholder engagement approach allows us as a
Firm to in?uence current discourse on a multitude of
issues.
Growth Markets & Private Equity
We engage with multiple venture capital and private
equity platforms on Africa, Latin America and the
Middle East to remain on top of trends and challenges
in the industry.
On a global level, we have been longstanding partners
of Private Equity International (PEI) as well as the
Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).
To impact public-private sector dialogue around
economic expansion across global growth markets we
are active members of a North America-based leader
in this sphere, the Business Council for International
Understanding.
Governance & Sustainability
Being a signatory and board member of the
United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) as well
as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
enables us to drive dialogue around sustainability,
governance and human rights. We are also one of
the 100 signatory companies to the World Economic
Forum’s (WEF) Partnering Against Corruption
Initiative (PACI). Our collaboration with WEF also
extends to over ?ve key industry projects. Through
our active participation in the G8 Social Impact
Investment Taskforce and our membership in the
Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) Investors’
Council, we share our expertise and exchange
best practices that serve global decision making at
the highest levels. This is in addition to supporting
the establishment of Trade Out of Poverty (TOP)
to tackle trade barriers hindering the growth of the
world’s poorest countries.
Our senior management capitalizes on our
strategic partnerships to shape global action
around sustainable growth. As an example, we
advise WEF’s Global Agenda Councils around
entrepreneurship, healthcare, sustainability and
?nance and investments. Our Founder and Group
Chief Executive also co-chairs WEF’s Global
Infrastructure Initiative with Gordon Brown, former
Prime Minister of the UK, and is a member of the
B20 Investments and Infrastructure Taskforce that
tackles barriers to a conducive investment and
growth environment.
We collaborate with multiple local and international
thought leaders to further support and spread
principles of sustainability across the world’s private
and social sectors. We partner with the Pearl
Initiative, a leading non-pro?t network of business
leaders working across the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) to foster corporate accountability
through driving action, positive leadership and
sharing knowledge. We also supported the ?rst-of-
its-kind regional Corporate Sustainability Executive
Education program at AUC and regularly share
expertise and best practices with regional non-
pro?t organizations and businesses through our
membership in the Arab Foundations Forum (AFF).
In addition, Abraaj and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation joined forces to create Philanthropy
Age, a publication designed to change the nature of
philanthropy in the MENASA region and encourage
thoughtful giving that delivers a demonstrable social
return for every philanthropic dollar invested.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 47
> Business for Peace: Creating Shared Value Roundtable
> Global Philanthropy Forum
> Skoll World Forum
> Shared Value Leadership Summit
> The Abraaj Annual Forum
5+5+5
> African Venture Capital Association (AVCA)
> Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN)
> Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU)
> Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA)
> European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA)
> Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA)
> Middle East Private Equity Association (MEPEA)
> Private Equity International (PEI)
> Arab Foundations Forum (AFF)
> B20 Investments and Infrastructure Taskforce
> Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
> Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)
> Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
> G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce
> Pearl Initiative
> Philanthropy Age
> Principles of Responsible Investing (PRI)
> The American University in Cairo (AUC)
> Trade Out of Poverty (TOP)
> United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)
> World Economic Forum (WEF)
> Abraaj Academy
> Columbia University
> Harvard University
> IMD
> INSEAD
> London Business School
> London School of Economics
Thought
Leadership
$ 12mn
invested
30+
platforms
Private
Equity &
Growth
Markets
Governance
& Sustainability
Academia
Events
Our Impact on
Thought Leadership
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 48
ASSET goes to the heart
of our original ambitions
to be different and to
create our own path for
the development of our
global operations. Indeed,
the ASSET approach is an
integral part of our Group’s
culture.
Frederic Sicre
Managing Director, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 49
Academia
Leading universities such as Harvard, Stanford,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Wharton, Duke, London Business School and
Columbia regularly approach us to develop research
and case studies. A number of these case studies
now form part of the teaching curriculum in MBA
programs, including a case study prepared by the
Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy
School on one of our ParCos, K-Electric, the ?rst
such joint case study to be prepared for a private
?rm. Often such partnerships also develop into
long-term ones, allowing us to produce timely and
thought-provoking research and insight.
We are also founding members of INSEAD’s Global
Private Equity Initiative (GPEI), which works hand
in hand with private equity ?rms to create relevant
and timely knowledge. In addition, we are a learning
partner of the International Institute for Management
Development (IMD), where our Founder and
Group Chief Executive sits on the Foundation
Board alongside CEOs of the world’s 50 leading
companies.
In an effort to offer continuous training and
development to our stakeholders, we established
the Abraaj Academy in 2010, headed by Professor
Josh Lerner from Harvard University. The aim
of the Academy is to provide our investors and
stakeholders in different markets with tailor-made
learning sessions on various relevant topics in
the private equity industry such as corporate
responsibility, negotiations, operations, strategic
marketing and talent development among others. A
number of CEOs from our ParCos also participated
in tailored training programs organized in our
headquarters in collaboration with IMD, a leading
European institution.
Events
In 2014, we were invited to share our insights and
expertise with 1500+ professionals from around
the globe at various key events, including the Skoll
World Forum in Oxford, the Shared Value Leadership
Summit in New York, the Global Philanthropy Forum
in San Francisco as well as the Impact Forum in
Singapore.
In addition, we regularly convene a series of Abraaj-
led events on macro topics ranging from economic
shifts affecting the world, to sustainability, to
growth markets. In May 2014, we co-developed
a Shared Value roundtable in Oslo in collaboration
with Business for Peace. The roundtable gathered
100 top leaders representing the ownership in
companies with more than 2 million jobs.
The Abraaj Annual Forum is another example
that demonstrates our commitment to thought
leadership through multi-stakeholder dialogue. The
Forum provides a unique opportunity for senior
management of the Group to interact with investors
and international business leaders on the critical
trends emerging over the forthcoming year. As of
2014, we have held four Forums that have been
attended by leading industry ?gures and former
heads of state and ministers from Asia, Latin
America, Africa and the Middle East region.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 50
Top: Jim O’Neill, Sir
Martin Sorrell, Trevor
Manuel, Heizo Takenaka
and Sean Cleary
(Moderator) at the Abraaj
Annual Forum 2013
Left: Frederic Sicre at
the Global Philanthropy
Forum 2014 on the topic
of leveraging markets and
private sector ingenuity
as a key component
of poverty alleviation
strategies
Right: Our Founder and
Group Chief Executive at
the opening plenary of the
Skoll World Forum 2014
alongside Sir Richard
Branson
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 51
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 52
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 53
THE RIPPLE
EFFECT
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 54
You cannot separate
ESG from value creation
in high growth markets. It
is not optional; rather it is
integral to the long-term
sustainability of the private
sector as it contributes
to the development
of economies.
Wahid Hamid
Partner, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 55
We always aspired to build on our unique strength
as a private equity ?rm and on the transformative
power we potentially carried in scaling our impact
through the ParCos in our portfolio. ASSET goes
beyond Abraaj and its 300 employees. Our unique
model aims to infuse our ethos and DNA within our
ParCos, and through them, drive even more value
creation in growth markets.
In addition to this, we developed the Abraaj
Sustainability Index (ASI), a proprietary tool that
measures over 40 quantitative and qualitative
indicators of Economic, Social and Governance
(ESG) practices across our ParCos. The ASI score
allows us to assess the evolution of ParCos’ ESG
performance over time and compare it to other
constituents of our investment portfolio. This is
supplemented by the integration of ESG principles in
our business and across our ParCos at all stages of
the investment process. These strategies capitalize
on our ability to revolutionize companies we invest in
as a private equity ?rm, which places us at a unique
vantage point to affect change among millions of
individuals.
The following examples demonstrate how several
of our ParCos do in fact carry on our philosophy,
creating ripples of change and engagement across
their own stakeholders, employees and value chains.
WHEN ESG MEETS ASSET:
BUILDING SUSTAINABLE
BUSINESSES AND
COMMUNITIES
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 56
Condor Travel is the leading inbound tour operator
company in Peru. It provides market opportunities
for 600+ local microbusinesses by including them
in its network of providers. Condor also engages its
stakeholders in the development of new tourism trails
that integrate typically marginalized areas into its portfolio
of destinations and in turn provide their residents with
social and economic expansion opportunities. As a result
of such an approach, the small Andean community of
Miamian, near Cusco, received a total of 653 tourists in
2012, bene?ting 300 families living there and representing
a 200% increase in revenues from 2011.
Condor Travel
families’ livelihoods
enhanced
300+
600+
local microbusinesses
empowered
ASSET
and ESG
VALUE CREATION IN ACTION
Latin America
Peru
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 57
Opalia* is a Tunisian pharmaceutical company started in
1998 by a remarkable entrepreneur, Dr. Alya El Hedda.
Dr. Hedda has grown Opalia diligently in stages over
the past two decades. In the 1990s, she focused
on nurturing Opalia’s Research and Development
Department to develop new drugs for registration. During
the 2000s she focused on maturing the company and
increasing Opalia’s generic drug production. By 2007,
she had over 150 drug offerings, a brand new facility
and was experiencing double-digit growth, making
Opalia one of the top three generic producers in Tunisia.
In 2009, since our investment in Opalia, we worked
together to expand the company’s footprint to include
10 countries. Currently, 60% of Opalia’s staff is female.
Through the Founder’s skillful management and our
strategic advice, this ethical business has been and
continues to be pro?table, enabling marginalized citizens
from Libya to the Atlantic with access to quality and
affordable medication.
* Abraaj exited Opalia in 2013.
ASSET
and ESG
Opalia
offered across
10 countries
150
affordable drug
offerings
60%
of Opalia’s staff
is female
Sustainable capitalism results from
investors and entrepreneurs, as
critical components of the economic
ecosystem, taking full responsibility
for their net impact on society, and
investing for an identi?ed deliberate
impact and in businesses that
inherently foster impact.”
Sev Vettivetpillai
Partner, The Abraaj Group
“
North Africa
Tunisia
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 58
The Nairobi Women’s Hospital (NWH) is the ?rst of its
kind in the East and Central African region. It is focused
on providing obstetric and gynecological services as well
as all other general, medical and surgical procedures
for women and their families. With our support, the
Nairobi Women’s Hospital (NWH) expanded from a 50+
to 250+ bed facility. The hospital’s structure was also
institutionalized through the introduction of a governance
body that continuously monitors and enhances its
performance. In aligning its community engagement
efforts with its core business, NWH now implements a
Gender Violence and Recovery Centre (GVRC) which
has served over 20,000 victims of rape and domestic
violence to date. NWH has also introduced a nursing
school, thus increasing the pool of skilled employees
available in Kenya as a whole.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kenya
ASSET
and ESG
Nairobi
Women’s
Hospital
of patients are from
marginalized communities
Serves 20,000+ victims
of violence through its
Gender Violence and
Recovery Centre
60%+
beds expanded from 50+
250+
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 59
South Asia
Pakistan
K-Electric, incorporated in 1913, is the only remaining
vertically integrated power utility in Pakistan with exclusive
franchising rights to serve Karachi, Pakistan’s largest
city, and its surrounding areas. It has a 2.3 million-strong
customer base, a workforce of more than 17,000
employees and is listed on all three Pakistan stock
exchanges. Through our investment, K-Electric was made
pro?table for the ?rst time in 17 years. The company
was suffering from a multitude of issues including
severe underinvestment, operational weaknesses and
misalignment among various stakeholders. Apart from
a capital injection and an increase in energy generation
capacity of 1,000 MW since 2012, Abraaj upgraded
K-Electric through a turnaround strategy based on broad
multi-stakeholder engagement. The strategy revolved
around rebuilding the social contract that united K-Electric
to its internal and external stakeholders and thus regaining
trust. It included initiating a project that aims to turn 4,200
tons of waste from a 400,000 cattle colony into a state-
of-the-art bio gas plant, sponsoring employee’s children
to enroll in vocational training, providing free electricity
to several healthcare facilities in the country as well as
creating platforms for young and upcoming sports players
to harness their talents. By 2012, K-Electric issued
Pakistan’s ?rst GRI A-rated integrated sustainability report,
representing an unprecedented level of disclosure and
stakeholder engagement. As a result of these initiatives,
K-Electric was awarded the FT/IFC Transformational
Business Awards in 2014.
ASSET
and ESG
K-Electric
320
school units provided
with electricity
500
underprivileged children
engaged in football leagues
4000+
tons of waste turned
into bio gas
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 60
Through our ASSET strategy we have been
able to impact and engage with a wide array
of stakeholders across global growth markets.
We have spearheaded key initiatives through a
combination of our ?nancial resources, our technical
expertise and our holistic approach. ASSET’s growth
has mirrored that of our Firm, and our stakeholder
model is now carried out across all of our regions,
including Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey and Central
Asia, and Latin America.
To date, we have invested a total of US$ 100+
million into over 100 global and regional initiatives
and partners. More importantly, through our 5+5+5
program, our executives and employees have
invested 10,000 hours of their time in providing
invaluable expertise and efforts across ASSET’s four
core pillars, to enable entrepreneurship, to foster
art and innovation, to empower the next generation
and to further thought leadership. We are also
infusing our approach to doing business responsibly
and sustainably in each of our ParCos, thus
perpetuating a positive ripple effect as they pass on
our philosophy to their own stakeholders, employees
and supply chains.
In our experience, we know that creating a
sustainable business means that by default you are
creating a successful one. Existing in a silo will no
longer be a viable option for a business that wants
to continue to thrive. For any CEO who cares to
look, the fact of the matter is that businesses will not
pro?t from allowing today’s challenges, whether they
be social, environmental or economic, to continue.
THE STORY
CONTINUES
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 61
Our experience in the last 12 years has
consolidated our belief in the power of long-
term thinking. This mindset shift drives a
new and healthy way of looking at the role of
business; one that is deeply interconnected
with macro and micro trends, such as the
pace of technology and innovation, the
power of youth, urbanization and growing
inequalities, to name just a few.
A stakeholder model is key to any business
operating in today’s complex world, allowing
us to be better prepared for the critical
challenges we face as a society, and for the
opportunities that lie ahead of us to shape our
collective future.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 62
The information contained in this Abraaj Group Brochure
(“Brochure”) is given, to the fullest extent permitted by
law, without any liability whatsoever to Abraaj Holdings,
any of its subsidiaries, af?liates or related entities or
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direct or indirect losses, damages (including special or
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whatsoever arising from any use of, or reliance placed
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No representation or warranty, express or implied,
is made or given by the Abraaj Group as to the
accuracy, completeness or fairness of the information
or opinions contained in this Brochure. In particular, no
representation or warranty is made that any projection,
forecast, calculation, forward-looking statement,
assumption or estimate contained in this Brochure
should or will be achieved. There is a substantial
likelihood that at least some, if not all, of the forward-
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The information and opinions contained in this Brochure
are provided by the Abraaj Group for personal use
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information, including any ?nancial calculations,
projections and forecasts contained in this Brochure.
The information is inherently subject to change without
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verify any information obtained from this Brochure
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Unless otherwise indicated, references to “EBITDA” in
this document represent revenues and earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization adjusted
for one-time expenses and other adjustments where
deemed appropriate to better approximate business
earnings growth.
This Brochure includes descriptions of selected Abraaj
Group investments, including details on the transaction,
investment thesis and events post-acquisition. The
selected investments are intended only to be illustrative
of the types of investments made by the Abraaj Group.
In considering any performance data contained herein,
each recipient of this Brochure should bear in mind that
past performance is not indicative of future results, and
there can be no assurance that any future investment
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results. Nothing contained herein should be deemed to
be a prediction or projection of future performance of
any investment made by the Abraaj Group.
The information contained in this Brochure does not
constitute investment, legal, tax or accounting advice.
Recipients of this Brochure should conduct their own
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relating to any legal, tax or accounting issues relating
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securities of any vehicle investing in such regions and
recipients should not rely on any information or
opinions contained herein in making an investment
or other decision.
DISCLAIMER TO
THE ABRAAJ
GROUP
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 63
Certain information contained in this Brochure
concerning economic trends and performance is
based on or derived from information provided by
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Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 64
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 65
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 1
@abraajgroup
The Abraaj Group
abraaj.com
doc_548269995.pdf
Presentation explain abraaj strategic stakeholder engagement track.
ASSET
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder
Engagement Track
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 4
• Introduction of the Abraaj
Sustainability Council.
• Abraaj becomes one of
the 100 signatory
companies to the WEF’s
Partnering Against
Corruption Initiative (PACI).
• Establishment of the Peter
Heath Women’s
Entrepreneurship Fund at the
American University of Sharjah
(AUS) for women to develop
innovative and
high-value-added businesses.
• Our Founder is awarded the
2013 Oslo Business for Peace
Award in Norway and joins The
Giving Pledge.
• Support of the Global
Shapers community, a network
of 350+ city hubs led by
4,000+ young leaders.
• Introduction of the
Abraaj Sustainability Index
(ASI) that measures our
partner companies’
(ParCos) performance
against environmental,
social and governance (ESG)
indicators.
• Abraaj becomes an IMD
learning partner and our
Founder joins its Foundation
Board, alongside CEOs
of the world’s 50
leading companies.
• Abraaj becomes a member
of the Clinton Global Initiative
(CGI).
• Abraaj partners with
INSEAD and becomes a
founding member of the
Global Private Equity Initiative
(GPEI) to produce timely and
thought-provoking research.
• Our Founder establishes the
Aman Foundation, which
provides health services and
vocational training centers in
Pakistan.
• Partnership with Madrasati to
renovate hundreds of schools
and elevate education quality.
• Strategic partnership with
the World Economic
Forum (WEF).
• Establishment of the MSc in
Finance and Private Equity
at the LSE, the world’s only
?nance postgraduate degree
with a specialization in
private equity.
• Our ParCos endorse the
Ethical Framework for
Investment (EFI).
• Abraaj becomes a member of
the United Nations-supported
Principles for Responsible
Investment (PRI) Initiative.
• Establishment of Mustaqbali
Foundation to empower
Palestinian orphans through
education, health and career
development projects.
• Partnership with Junior
Achievement (JA), the largest
global non-pro?t dedicated to
empowering young people to
own their economic success.
• Launch of the Abraaj Group
Art Prize at Art Dubai, which
rewards artists from growth
markets on the basis of
proposals rather than
completed works of art.
The Abraaj Group is
established
2
0
0
2
• Abraaj joins the board of the Pearl
Initiative which fosters a corporate
culture of transparency and
accountability in the GCC.
• Abraaj joins the Global Impact
Investing Network (GIIN).
2
0
1
1
• Launch of Philanthropy Age
with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, promoting a new
way of giving.
• Establishment of the
Professorship in Private Equity
(PE) at The American University
in Cairo (AUC) with an
endowment fund to strengthen
research in PE and venture
capital.
• Our Founder is appointed to
the United Nations Global
Compact (UNGC) Board.
2
0
1
2
2
0
1
3
• Co-development of the Shared
Value roundtable
in Oslo with Business
for Peace.
• Launch of the Abraaj RCA
Innovation Scholarship, the
world’s largest scholarship for
postgraduate art and design
students.
2
0
1
4
2
0
0
6
-
2
0
0
7
2
0
0
8
2
0
0
9
• Launch of Wamda, the leading
portal for entrepreneurship
in MENA and a resource for
expert advice.
• Abraaj supports Trade Out of
Poverty (TOP) to tackle trade
barriers hindering the world’s
poorest countries.
• Establishment of the Abraaj
Academy with Harvard
University’s Dr. Josh Lerner as
Dean.
• Partnership with Endeavor
to expand its global footprint
by joining key Boards and
providing support, including
mentorship to high impact
entrepreneurs.
• Support of Education for
Employment (EFE), a network
of local non-pro?ts providing
youngsters with skills and
career opportunities.
• Abraaj hosts the Celebration
of Entrepreneurship (CoE)
gathering 2500+ global
stakeholders to promote
entrepreneurship.
2
0
1
0
• Establishment of the PJD Wiles
Scholarship to support ten MSc
scholarships at the London School
of Economics (LSE).
• Co-development of Art Dubai, a
global art fair recognized as one of
the leading fairs in the world, with
a total of 85 galleries from 34
countries and over 500 artists
exhibited in the 2014 edition.
A 12-Year
Journey
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 5
• Introduction of the Abraaj
Sustainability Council.
• Abraaj becomes one of
the 100 signatory
companies to the WEF’s
Partnering Against
Corruption Initiative (PACI).
• Establishment of the Peter
Heath Women’s
Entrepreneurship Fund at the
American University of Sharjah
(AUS) for women to develop
innovative and
high-value-added businesses.
• Our Founder is awarded the
2013 Oslo Business for Peace
Award in Norway and joins The
Giving Pledge.
• Support of the Global
Shapers community, a network
of 350+ city hubs led by
4,000+ young leaders.
• Introduction of the
Abraaj Sustainability Index
(ASI) that measures our
partner companies’
(ParCos) performance
against environmental,
social and governance (ESG)
indicators.
• Abraaj becomes an IMD
learning partner and our
Founder joins its Foundation
Board, alongside CEOs
of the world’s 50
leading companies.
• Abraaj becomes a member
of the Clinton Global Initiative
(CGI).
• Abraaj partners with
INSEAD and becomes a
founding member of the
Global Private Equity Initiative
(GPEI) to produce timely and
thought-provoking research.
• Our Founder establishes the
Aman Foundation, which
provides health services and
vocational training centers in
Pakistan.
• Partnership with Madrasati to
renovate hundreds of schools
and elevate education quality.
• Strategic partnership with
the World Economic
Forum (WEF).
• Establishment of the MSc in
Finance and Private Equity
at the LSE, the world’s only
?nance postgraduate degree
with a specialization in
private equity.
• Our ParCos endorse the
Ethical Framework for
Investment (EFI).
• Abraaj becomes a member of
the United Nations-supported
Principles for Responsible
Investment (PRI) Initiative.
• Establishment of Mustaqbali
Foundation to empower
Palestinian orphans through
education, health and career
development projects.
• Partnership with Junior
Achievement (JA), the largest
global non-pro?t dedicated to
empowering young people to
own their economic success.
• Launch of the Abraaj Group
Art Prize at Art Dubai, which
rewards artists from growth
markets on the basis of
proposals rather than
completed works of art.
The Abraaj Group is
established
2
0
0
2
• Abraaj joins the board of the Pearl
Initiative which fosters a corporate
culture of transparency and
accountability in the GCC.
• Abraaj joins the Global Impact
Investing Network (GIIN).
2
0
1
1
• Launch of Philanthropy Age
with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, promoting a new
way of giving.
• Establishment of the
Professorship in Private Equity
(PE) at The American University
in Cairo (AUC) with an
endowment fund to strengthen
research in PE and venture
capital.
• Our Founder is appointed to
the United Nations Global
Compact (UNGC) Board.
2
0
1
2
2
0
1
3
• Co-development of the Shared
Value roundtable
in Oslo with Business
for Peace.
• Launch of the Abraaj RCA
Innovation Scholarship, the
world’s largest scholarship for
postgraduate art and design
students.
2
0
1
4
2
0
0
6
-
2
0
0
7
2
0
0
8
2
0
0
9
• Launch of Wamda, the leading
portal for entrepreneurship
in MENA and a resource for
expert advice.
• Abraaj supports Trade Out of
Poverty (TOP) to tackle trade
barriers hindering the world’s
poorest countries.
• Establishment of the Abraaj
Academy with Harvard
University’s Dr. Josh Lerner as
Dean.
• Partnership with Endeavor
to expand its global footprint
by joining key Boards and
providing support, including
mentorship to high impact
entrepreneurs.
• Support of Education for
Employment (EFE), a network
of local non-pro?ts providing
youngsters with skills and
career opportunities.
• Abraaj hosts the Celebration
of Entrepreneurship (CoE)
gathering 2500+ global
stakeholders to promote
entrepreneurship.
2
0
1
0
• Establishment of the PJD Wiles
Scholarship to support ten MSc
scholarships at the London School
of Economics (LSE).
• Co-development of Art Dubai, a
global art fair recognized as one of
the leading fairs in the world, with
a total of 85 galleries from 34
countries and over 500 artists
exhibited in the 2014 edition.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 2
THE
BEGINNING
ESTABLISHING
ASSET
Social Investing Program
(SIP) 11
From a Social Investing Program to a
Stakeholder Engagement Model 21
A Long-Term Approach to Social
Investments 24
1 2
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 3
SUSTAINED
IMPACT
THE RIPPLE
EFFECT
Entrepreneurship 36
Art & Innovation 38
The Next Generation 42
Thought Leadership 46
When ESG meets ASSET: Building
Sustainable Businesses and
Communities 55
Value Creation in Action 56
3 4
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 4
Stakeholder engagement
in its simplest form is about
realizing that a company
can’t be an island of
excellence in an ocean of
turbulence.
Arif Naqvi
Founder & Group Chief Executive, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 5
The Abraaj Group was established in accordance with
one strong belief: the promise of growth markets. We
saw the enormous potential of private sector growth
in these markets and as such, built a private equity
?rm embedded at the center of critical growth drivers
including: young populations entering the workforce
and marketplace, rising demand for consumer-based
products and services, and the need for infrastructure
development.
We pride ourselves for having evolved a private equity
model grounded in macro fundamentals, deeply
rooted in our markets and in touch with solid micro
opportunities on the ground. By investing capital in
mid-market businesses, choosing the right partners,
implementing strong risk mitigation and consistent
investment processes, we have grown today to
become one of the leading growth markets private
equity ?rms in the world.
The Abraaj Group was born in Dubai, in 2002, in
an effort to be strategically positioned around the
markets we were operating in at the time. The Middle
East, North Africa, South Asia (MENASA) region
formed the core of Abraaj’s ?rst investments, which
ABRAAJ TODAY
quickly reaf?rmed the potential of growth markets
as a destination for private equity investing. Today,
Abraaj has expanded far beyond the MENASA region
to include Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey
and Central Asia, in addition to South East Asia. The
Firm manages c. US$ 7.5 billion across 20+ regional,
sector and country-speci?c Funds, and has realized
c. US$ 4.9 billion from over 80 full and partial exits.
We have made over 200 investments and currently
have holdings in 130 Partner Companies (ParCos).
Abraaj has more than 300 employees with 25+ of?ces
spread across six regional hubs in Dubai, Istanbul,
Mexico City, Mumbai, Nairobi and Singapore and
two global investor coverage of?ces in London and
New York.
Abraaj’s journey started with less than US$ 100,000
of our Founder’s own savings. We adopted an
investment philosophy that capitalized on the
signi?cant role private equity can play in driving
sustainable impact and the growth potential within
these largely untapped regions. From that point on,
Abraaj has been setting the standard for investing
in growth markets and its unique philosophy and
approach is what has made all the difference.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 6
2014
$60mn AuM
One Of?ce
19 employees
$3mn share capital
2002
25+ of?ces, across 6
regional hubs
300+ employees
$1.5bn share capital
$7.5bn AuM
A 12-Year Journey
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 7
Since inception, we have seen our role as going
beyond that of a leading private equity ?rm providing
its investors and shareholders with risk-adjusted
returns well above industry benchmarks. We worked
towards pioneering a model where shareholder
returns were primary, but where the ability to
create deep-rooted and sustainable changes in the
economic landscape within our markets was as
critical a benchmark of success as pure ?nancial
returns.
Our philosophy is simple: we refuse to operate in a
silo. We measure our success with the degree to
which both our businesses and the communities
prosper in parallel. Our markets which are rich
in opportunities, are equally in need of critical
investments in areas such as education, infrastructure
and healthcare; failing that, they will not reach their full
potential.
Whereas governments have long been held
accountable for citizens’ and nations’ wellbeing,
the private sector today is increasingly relied upon
to put its expertise to the bene?t of society. Global
challenges are becoming more complex and there
is an urge for collective multi-stakeholder action
and alignment. Businesses today need to think in
terms of decades rather than days, and incorporate
sustainability measures into their operational
processes and collective identity.
Frederic Sicre
Managing Director
The Abraaj Group
As with any journey, ours has been an evolutionary
one that has led us to being at the forefront of a
movement that compels businesses like ours to be
active and responsible agents of value creation. We
have always been committed to improving the state
of the world, as is demonstrated by the nomination
of our Founder for the Business for Peace Award in
2012.
In our experience, institutionalizing stakeholder
engagement as a core value and a strategic objective,
with clear performance indicators, is key to creating
long-term value. We are convinced more than
ever of the tremendous role businesses can play
in driving positive change. In line with that belief,
we have chosen to share the story of our 12-year
journey resulting in establishing sustainable business
practices as a strategic management approach within
our Firm and the companies that we invest in.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 8
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 9
THE BEGINNING
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 10
My vision is to
spread a culture of
giving among every
employee at Abraaj.
Arif Naqvi
Founder & Group Chief Executive, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 11
HEALTHCARE
Access, affordability and cost of healthcare services
continue to represent a major challenge in growth
markets. We therefore complemented our market-
oriented investment strategy by making healthcare
a cornerstone of our social investment portfolio from
the start.
To do so, we partnered with multiple organizations
on the expansion of emergency care facilities and the
provision of pediatric wards and specialized facilities.
Our support of the Aga Khan University Hospital in
Pakistan, the Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation
of the Disabled and Shanti Avedna Sadan Hospice
in India enabled the renovation of key facilities
and enhanced the three entities’ ability to absorb
additional patients and provide quality health services.
Our partnerships with the Shaukat Khanum Memorial
Trust and Palestine Children’s Relief Fund ensured
both entities could provide affordable or free medical
services and interventions to marginalized patients.
We furthered our commitment to the healthcare
sector through Tamkeen (Foresight) in the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), which organized a mobility
training program instilling greater independence and
con?dence in children, as well as through Sightsavers
International, which expanded their facilities and their
provision of quality medical services and surgeries to
thousands of marginalized patients.
Beyond directly funding our partners’ expansion and
service provision, we also enabled the pooling of
resources for key entities. For example, we supported
initiatives to raise over US$ 3 million for the King
Hussein Cancer Foundation, enabling it to serve
thousands of patients on a yearly basis.
Realizing the importance of supporting scienti?c
research on the health challenges facing our markets,
we also partnered with several organizations in the
United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.
These partnerships enabled the production of world-
class medical research on the cognitive challenges
faced by children with Down syndrome, as well as
the prevention and treatment of disability and mental
health disorders.
During our initial phase of growth, we contributed to relief efforts in natural and humanitarian emergencies
and directed our social investments towards capacity building in critical sectors in our markets, namely
healthcare, education and social development.
SOCIAL INVESTING
PROGRAM (SIP)
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 12
Top: Shake The Net uses
football as a vehicle for
youth development and
empowerment among
underprivileged children
Left: Ruwwad helps
disadvantaged communities
overcome marginalization
through youth activism, civic
engagement, scholarships,
workshops and education
Right: Room to Read
partners with local
communities to provide
quality educational
opportunities by establishing
libraries and creating local
language children’s literature
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 13
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 14
Emergency
Relief
Social
Development
Education
Healthcare
500,000+
lives directly
and indirectly
impacted
$27mn
invested in
35+ organizations
Sectors of Strategic
Social Investments
> Dubai Center for Special
Needs, United Arab Emirates
> Dubai Foundation for Women
and Children, United Arab
Emirates
> Edhi Foundation, Pakistan
> Family Education Services
Foundation, Pakistan
> Hoping Foundation, Palestine
> Habitat for Humanity, Jordan
> Lebanese Welfare Association
for the Handicapped,
Lebanon
> Mala3eb, Jordan
> Manzil, United Arab Emirates
> PACES, Palestine
> Adana Deaf Research Center, Turkey
> Aga Khan University Hospital,
Pakistan
> Foundation for AIDS Research, Global
> King Hussein Cancer Center, Jordan
> Palestine Children’s Relief Fund,
Palestine
> Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation
of the Disabled, Pakistan
> Prince Salman Center for Disability
Research, Saudi Arabia
> Shanti Avedna Sadan Hospice, India
> Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust,
Pakistan
> Sightsavers International, Pakistan
> St. John Eye Hospital, Palestine
> Tamkeen (Foresight), United Arab
Emirates
> Al Noor Training Center for
Children with Special Needs,
Pakistan
> Dominic Simpson Memorial
Trust, Palestine
> Dubai Cares, Global
> Madrasati, Jordan
> Room to Read, South Asia
> Schools of Excellence,
Pakistan
> Planet Finance, Morocco
> Ruwwad, MENA
> Save the Children, Egypt
> Society for Sustainable
Development, Pakistan
> The Dhaka Project,
Bangladesh
> UNDP Live, Lebanon
> UNICEF, India
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 15
EDUCATION
Education is key to boosting opportunities for
integration and employment in what is becoming an
increasingly knowledge-based economy. Early on in
our journey, we invested heavily in enhancing basic
education infrastructure through our day-to-day
business and our social investment portfolio, which
included a variety of unique and impactful initiatives.
One among these initiatives was our support for
Room to Read in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka,
which furthered the organization’s global efforts to
develop literacy skills and a reading habit among
children. Abraaj’s contributions led to the creation of
15 libraries, which made 12,000+ books available
to close to 4,000 students within one year. Our
partnership with Schools of Excellence also enabled
the creation of several campuses and the provision of
scholarships for more than 100 children in Pakistan.
Parallel to this, we created scholarships through
the Dominic Simpson Memorial Trust in Palestine,
covering the cost of studies for several girls, of which
the ?rst three recipients enrolled in university in 2009.
Our commitment to the educational ecosystem
expanded to Jordan, where we supported Madrasati.
This initiative was launched by Her Majesty Queen
Rania and brings together businesses, non-
governmental organizations and local communities
alongside the Ministry of Education to directly tackle
the pressing need for quality education by enhancing
infrastructure and upgrading educational tools and
management among Jordan’s most marginalized
establishments. Our support was crucial for Madrasati
to fully upgrade and renovate 300 schools across the
country, while simultaneously introducing trainings
on technology, health awareness as well as extra-
curricular activities. By kick-starting the program, we
played a cornerstone role in making formal education
an achievable target for all Jordanian children.
Alongside our business activities in Egypt, we
supported Save the Children, an international charity
organization involved in emergency and long-term
relief as well as development projects. We focused
our efforts on a single school in most urgent need for
support. The project we selected was designed to
improve the quality of education for children between
6-14 years of age in three ways: through creating
constructive learning environments, strengthening
policies through innovative research and creating
awareness in communities to demand quality
education. Through Save the Children’s mission of
inspiring breakthroughs in the way the world treats
children, this program directly bene?ted 5,500
children and 150 teachers in just one year.
To simultaneously address issues of access to basic
healthcare and education we partnered with Dubai
Cares globally, a foundation that works in countries
with major de?ciencies in primary education. By
targeting the underlying causes preventing children
from accessing quality education, Dubai Cares
adopts a holistic approach which includes addressing
schools’ infrastructure, sanitation and hygiene, health
and nutrition as well as quality of the educational
experience in its entirety. The organization and its
work have grown to positively affect over 10 million
children in 35 countries since its inception in 2007.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 16
We have always believed
businesses have the
responsibility to engage
with communities and help
shape the markets in which
they operate.
Frederic Sicre
Managing Director, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 17
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
In an effort to cultivate socially responsible
citizens, we partnered with Ruwwad, a community
empowerment organization focused on youth
activism, civic engagement and education. Our ?ve-
year partnership with Ruwwad helped it reach 725
marginalized young people across the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) region, enabling them to
further their education and become active citizens.
To foster a healthier generation of children through
physical education across the MENA region, we
contributed funds to train coaches in basketball,
football and community service through Palestine’s
PACES Foundation. The program has created 615
positions for coaches in Lebanon, Jordan and
Palestine who were able to train over 3,400 children.
In Bangladesh, our support of The Dhaka Project’s
“Food for Thought” program enabled the organization
to provide nutritious meals for 600 children. Beyond
improving these children’s nutrition, the promise of
two meals a day on holidays and weekends carried
students through their studies for a full year, as it
added an extra incentive to stay enrolled in schools.
Given the lack of social and economic integration
that people with disabilities experience across growth
markets, we supported several interventions geared
towards countering such a situation. These included
our partnership with the Family Education Services
Foundation, which saw the creation of training centers
and two schools tailored to the needs of people with
hearing impairments in Hyderabad and Karachi. The
established centers implemented key interventions,
including teaching parents the use of sign language
and enabling people with hearing impairments to
autonomously run ?ve restaurants which in turn
created 150 jobs. Efforts in this area also included
our partnership with Manzil, an organization focused
on the social and economic integration of people
with disabilities in the UAE. Manzil students received
training, which enabled them to start their own
projects or obtain jobs.
Broader development and social integration efforts
included support of Planet Finance (Morocco) which
enhanced the capacity of 50 women to enter the
job market or start their own businesses. Efforts also
included supporting Habitat for Humanity in Jordan
which led to the creation of a self-built housing
project for 99 families in Ghor Al Sa? located south
of the Dead Sea. Our funds provided the necessary
capital to allow families to build their way out of
poverty, taking affordable loans that are repaid without
interest charges. Each new house brought greater
opportunities for families to lead safe, healthy and
productive lives.
During the ?rst phase of our journey, our
contributions amounted to US$ 27 million,
directly impacting the lives of more than 48,000
citizens and indirectly impacting an additional
500,000+ citizens. This was made possible
through partnerships with 38 community-based
organizations across Sub-Saharan Africa, South
Asia and the MENA region which had a regional
and global impact.
Our Social Investing Program served as the
foundation for a more solid, strategic and
consistent integration and institutionalization
of responsibility into our business. With our
rapid growth, and in line with the nature of The
Abraaj Group as a Firm, we knew it was time to
take stock of what we were doing and where
we wanted to go, and develop our strategy
further. This led to the establishment of a robust
governance structure that would oversee
Abraaj’s social investments, how we engage with
our stakeholders and communicate our expertise
to the outside world.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 18
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 19
ESTABLISHING
ASSET
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 20
Government
5% of The
Abraaj
Group’s
gross
management
fees
5% of
employees’
annual
bonuses on
a voluntary
basis
A minimum
of 5 days of
employees’
time a year
5+5+5
NGOs
$100mn+
invested
volunteered
10,000hrs
Building
sustainable
communities
Civil Society
Our Stakeholder
Engagement Model
Academia
Businesses Employees
Our Stakeholder
Engagement Model
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 21
While many companies worldwide have structured
their giving through a corporate foundation, we
deliberately chose to institutionalize ours through
the Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track
(ASSET). ASSET is central to our business and
implements the 5+5+5 model, a unique program
that drives collective action towards transforming our
markets and unleashing their potential. Our objective
was to shift our engagement from a pure social
investing model to a stakeholder engagement model
that would focus on engaging media, academia,
NGOs, governments, youth and civil society with the
goal to create positive change in our markets.
Through ASSET’s 5+5+5 model, we contribute
5% of the Firm’s gross management fees, 5% of
employee bonuses (on a voluntary basis) and a
minimum of 5 days of volunteer work a year per
employee towards stakeholder engagement.
Since its establishment, our 5+5+5 program has
been a cornerstone of the Firm’s philosophy, while
its impact has been extensive globally. Through a
multi-stakeholder and comprehensive approach,
the program unites our staff and continues to thrive
across our regional of?ces. By engaging every
Abraaj employee, we are able to ensure that our
stakeholder engagement model adheres to the
same level of quality and ef?ciency as our day-to-
day operations.
We consolidated our social investment portfolio
to resemble a private equity approach; long-term
partnerships were established shifting us towards
patient and strategic investments that are aligned
with our core business and are geared towards
creating sustainable shared value.
FROM A SOCIAL
INVESTING PROGRAM
TO A STAKEHOLDER
ENGAGEMENT MODEL
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 22
Top: Abraaj held an
internal fundraising
drive to support victims
of Typhoon Haiyan in
November 2013, which
was directed towards
rebuilding schools
Left: Staff participated in
the annual Dubai Cares
Walk for Education to
support global projects
Right: Our Nairobi
team contributed
to environmental
sustainability by planting
2,200 indigenous trees
at Karura Forest and
maintaining them for three
years
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 23
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 24
3.5mn+
School meals served
600,000+
Emergency interventions
100
Ambulances equipped
for life-saving
interventions
1808
Students enrolled
135
Higher and vocational
education graduates
400
Orphans received
adequate treatment
153
Bene?ted from
rehabilitation services
34
Interns and apprentices placed
100
Youth career skills enhanced
Mustaqbali
Foundation
Aman
Foundation
Healthcare
Services
Education and
Vocational
Training
Career
Development
and Economic
Empowerment
AMANHEALTH
Nutrition
Services
3
,
000+
Youth trained
and enrolled in
13 trades
2
,
500
Graduates placed
locally and
internationally
AMANTECH
A LONG-TERM APPROACH TO
SOCIAL INVESTMENTS
Our belief in the power of a long-term approach
drove us to partner with an organization that
applies a private equity model to tackling poverty,
the Acumen Fund. Acumen represents a point
of convergence between a traditional private
equity ethos and social investing by making equity
investments available to social businesses. By doing
so, Acumen allows these businesses to expand
their operations as well as simultaneously create
?nancial and social value. Aside from investing in
Acumen, our investment professionals assisted Chief
Executive Of?cers and Chief Financial Of?cers in its
portfolio with pro-bono advice and training enabling
them to develop effective ?nancial forecasting
systems.
The creation of Mustaqbali Foundation is another
example of long-term value creation. Abraaj
collaborated with the Welfare Association, the
largest citizen-led foundation in Palestine, and
set up Mustaqbali in 2009 with a US$ 10 million
endowment to support 1800+ Palestinian orphans.
Mustaqbali’s unique model tracks the evolution of
each speci?c child, year after year, continuously
addressing their social, health, educational and
career needs from kindergarten until they reach
the age of 22. As of 2014, Mustaqbali enrolled 477
children in pre-school and ?rst grade, included 1331
students in their remedial education, graduated 60
children from higher education programs and 75
children from vocational training. On the employment
front, the career skills of 100 youth were enhanced
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 25
3.5mn+
School meals served
600,000+
Emergency interventions
100
Ambulances equipped
for life-saving
interventions
1808
Students enrolled
135
Higher and vocational
education graduates
400
Orphans received
adequate treatment
153
Bene?ted from
rehabilitation services
34
Interns and apprentices placed
100
Youth career skills enhanced
Mustaqbali
Foundation
Aman
Foundation
Healthcare
Services
Education and
Vocational
Training
Career
Development
and Economic
Empowerment
AMANHEALTH
Nutrition
Services
3
,
000+
Youth trained
and enrolled in
13 trades
2
,
500
Graduates placed
locally and
internationally
AMANTECH
through comprehensive training and capacity
development and several startups have been
seeded through the program, thus improving the
quality of life of over 60 families. Mustaqbali has also
provided sustained access to basic healthcare and
awareness services to all families included in the
program.
Additionally, the Aman Foundation was set up in
2008 by Arif Naqvi and his family with seed capital
of US$ 100 million to champion dignity and choice
for the underserved through strategic interventions
in healthcare, nutrition and education. The impact
of Aman can be seen everywhere in Karachi. On the
healthcare front, AMANHEALTH’s ?eet counts 100
ambulances equipped for life-saving interventions
and is operating with a response rate of 8 minutes in
the world’s third most populated city. On the nutrition
front, over 3.5 million healthy and nutritious meals
have been distributed to deprived communities
outside Karachi. Finally, Aman developed a world-
class vocational training center called AMANTECH.
Today, over 3,000 students are enrolled in 13
different trades and are being placed in jobs with
the aim to make them active contributors to their
society.
Having solidi?ed the foundations on which
ASSET could thrive, we focused our engagement
strategy on social and economic expansion core
to growth markets and to our Firm.
This led us to focus on four key areas: building
entrepreneurship ecosystems, celebrating art
and innovation, empowering future generations
and sharing our thought leadership across our
global network. Through this strategy, we have
involved and empowered a wide network of
stakeholders, and positively impacted individuals,
organizations and communities across growth
markets.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 26
Top: Mustaqbali
Foundation’s mission is
to empower orphans to
live a ful?lling life and to
help young entrepreneurs
realize their business
ambitions
Left: Aman Foundation
is creating healthcare
ecosystems with outreach
initiatives targeted
towards essential
healthcare interventions
Right: AMANTECH
transforms lives by
providing vocational
training and facilitating
employment opportunities
locally and internationally
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 27
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 28
Strategic Stakeholder
Engagement 2009-Present
Social Investments
2002-2008
Entrepreneurship
Art & Innovation
Next Generation
Thought Leadership
Education
Emergency Relief
Healthcare
Social Development
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Brunei
Singapore
Sri Lanka
India
Bangladesh
Nepal
Pakistan
Kazakhstan
Oman
Yemen
Kenya
United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
Kuwait
Jordan
Turkey
Switzerland
United
Kingdom
Norway
Palestine
Egypt
Tunisia
Morocco
Mexico
North America
Qatar
South East Asia
Latin America
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Asia
Lebanon
Abraaj Today
25+ of?ces, 6 hubs
200+ investments
130 partner companies
300+ investors
US$7.5bn assets under management (AuM)
20+ regional, sector and country-speci?c Funds
Our Global
Stakeholder Impact
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 29
Strategic Stakeholder
Engagement 2009-Present
Social Investments
2002-2008
Entrepreneurship
Art & Innovation
Next Generation
Thought Leadership
Education
Emergency Relief
Healthcare
Social Development
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Brunei
Singapore
Sri Lanka
India
Bangladesh
Nepal
Pakistan
Kazakhstan
Oman
Yemen
Kenya
United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
Kuwait
Jordan
Turkey
Switzerland
United
Kingdom
Norway
Palestine
Egypt
Tunisia
Morocco
Mexico
North America
Qatar
South East Asia
Latin America
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Asia
Lebanon
Abraaj Today
25+ of?ces, 6 hubs
200+ investments
130 partner companies
300+ investors
US$7.5bn assets under management (AuM)
20+ regional, sector and country-speci?c Funds
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 30
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 31
SUSTAINED
IMPACT
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 32
An entrepreneurial
ecosystem is necessary
for sustaining the growth
rates global growth
markets are witnessing.
Growth will come from
the private sector, and the
private sector has to start
somewhere - and usually
that somewhere is small
enterprises.
Mustafa Abdel-Wadood
Partner, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 33
5+5+5
Next
Generation
Thought
Leadership
Art and
Innovation
Entrepreneurship
Building on our Social Investing
Program, we evolved the 5+5+5
model to empower the potential of
our stakeholders along four areas
key to growth markets.
Sectors of
Impact
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 34
Top: Abraaj seed
funded and mentored
Recyclobekia, the ?rst
student-led startup
in MENA focusing on
e-waste recycling
Left: Celebration of
Entrepreneurship was
held in November 2010,
gathering 2500+ global
stakeholders
Right: The Firm hosted
Endeavor’s International
Selection Panels to
mentor high-impact
entrepreneurs
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 35
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 36
13,000+ students supported and
mentored across MENA
3,000 students will be trained in
Kenya and Nigeria
Engaged 2500+ stakeholders around
entrepreneurship
Endeavor entrepreneurs’ job creation
capacity expanded from 5,300+ to 16,000
Endeavor entrepreneurs’ revenue generation
increased from $290mn to $600mn
The American
University
in Cairo
5+5+5
3,500 users
150,000+ atoms of content
Supporting 50 women in developing
innovative businesses
Entrepreneurship
9,000+
entrepreneurs
impacted
$20mn
invested
Wamda.com
Celebration of
Entrepreneurship
American
University
of Sharjah
Junior
Achievement
Endeavor
Our Impact on
Entrepreneurship
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 37
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Given the essential role it plays in economic
expansion, job creation and ultimately building
sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurship is naturally
a key focus of our engagement strategy. The
development of ecosystems that foster innovative
entrepreneurship across growth markets is well under
way and we have contributed major milestones
towards that through various commitments.
Our partnership with Endeavor, a global non-pro?t
organization dedicated to encouraging ‘high-impact
entrepreneurship’ in growth markets is one of many
examples. Abraaj played an active role in Endeavor’s
expansion from 2010 to 2014, helping it grow from
three to nine countries, while also leveraging its
network to recruit board members and mentors.
Abraaj executives sit on the boards of ?ve key
Endeavor chapters, namely the Global, United Arab
Emirates, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia boards. As
of 2014, thanks to Abraaj’s support, Endeavor’s 164
companies expanded their revenues from US$ 290 to
US$ 600 million and their job creation capacity from
5,300 to 16,000 jobs.
To encourage entrepreneurs early in their
development we partnered with Junior Achievement
(JA), the world’s largest organization dedicated to
educating students about workforce readiness,
entrepreneurship and ?nancial literacy through
experiential and hands-on programs that leverage
private sector volunteers. Abraaj executives’
participation in JA’s global board as well as various
national boards has translated into reaching
thousands of students across our markets.
In an effort to grow a cadre of women entrepreneurs,
we established the Peter Heath Women’s
Entrepreneurship Fund at the American University
of Sharjah (AUS) in 2013. The Fund will support 50
women in developing new, innovative and high-value-
added businesses over ?ve years.
In 2010, we hosted our Celebration of
Entrepreneurship (CoE) which gathered 2500+ global
stakeholders for the ?rst time in the MENA region.
CoE totally energized the entrepreneurial community,
and further developed it into an ecosystem through
our launch of Wamda, the region’s ?rst and leading
online resource for entrepreneurs. The portal gathers
thousands of online users and provides them with
over 150,000 pieces of content. Today, Wamda
serves as an entrepreneurship ecosystem activator,
as it leads media awareness around startups and
entrepreneurs, conducts community-building
efforts and established a research lab to promote
entrepreneurship across the region. The organization
also serves as a bridge between the MENA and
global entrepreneurship ecosystems, facilitating and
amplifying meaningful connections between driving
forces.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 38
5+5+5
$17mn
invested
60+
artists
directly
supported
Art and
Innovation
Royal College
of Art
25 artists and innovators from around
growth markets will gain post-graduate
degrees in design & innovation
Venice
Biennale
Brought the ?rst Pan-Arab exhibition
at the Biennale in partnership with
Edge of Arabia
Art Dubai
Hosted 70 museum groups, 400+
curators and museum representatives
and 25,000 visitors
Featured the work of 500+ artists from
around the world. 85 galleries represented
from over 34 countries
Abraaj
Group
Art Prize
26 artists and 10 curators empowered
to exhibit in international fairs and
world-class museums
Artworks loaned to: Sydney Biennale,
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Museum of Arts and Design, NY
Our Impact on
Art & Innovation
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 39
ART & INNOVATION
Through our extensive experience in growth
markets, we knew that necessity alone could not
drive entrepreneurial forces and that it must be
paired with strong local identities, open minds,
innovation and creativity. This has been one of the
main reasons behind our support for the arts, which
we acknowledge as a key driver of value creation.
Abraaj has co-developed Art Dubai into what is
today recognized as one of the leading art fairs in
the world. The fair has become a cornerstone of the
global contemporary art community and continues
to thrive by creating regional champions through the
Abraaj Group Art Prize (AGAP) since 2009. AGAP
is the only art prize speci?c to growth markets and
rewards proposals, rather than completed works of
art. Over the past six years, 36 artists and curators
have been rewarded, and the Abraaj collection has
grown to 26 works of art by 2014, thus establishing
Abraaj as a leading corporate patron of the Arts
globally.
Stemming from our commitment to expanding
the MENA region’s art scene and strengthening
indigenous culture, we also became a principal
patron of Edge of Arabia, an organization that
supports contemporary Saudi Arabian artists. Our
collaboration has brought us to the Venice Biennale
in 2011 where for the ?rst time in its history a pan-
Arab pavilion displayed its works.
To further our mission of empowering artists’
potential, we launched the ground-breaking Abraaj
Royal College of Art (RCA) Innovation Scholarship
in 2014 which will support 25 outstanding artists
from across growth markets in their quest to study
at the RCA. The RCA is the world’s oldest and most
in?uential university of art and design. Its alumni
include David Hockney, Tracy Emin, Christopher
Bailey, Ridley Scott, Zandra Rhodes and James
Dyson. More than 67% of RCA alumni pursue
entrepreneurial careers upon their graduation, and
so are able to capitalize on the role the art and
creative sectors play in job creation and economic
expansion.
As the largest international scholarship program in
the creative postgraduate sector, each Abraaj RCA
Innovation Scholar will undertake their studies in
various ?elds, from ceramics to textiles, to animation.
The ?rst cohort of Abraaj Scholars are from Mexico,
Turkey, Kazakhstan, India and Thailand and these
creative leaders will in turn use the transformative
powers of their RCA education to positively impact
the life and culture of their home countries.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 40
s
t
i
l
l
l
o
w
r
e
s
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 41 Left: FIRE/CAST/DRAW
by Rayyane Tabet, Abraaj
Group Art Prize 2013
winning artist
Middle: The Miraculous
Lives of This and That by
Huma Mulji, Abraaj Group
Art Prize 2013 winning
artist
Bottom: Art Dubai lines-
up around 90 galleries
from around the world
every year
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 42
THE NEXT GENERATION
We actively work towards empowering youth to be
positive contributors in their communities, as enabling
tomorrow’s leaders to ful?ll their potential will sustain
the growth of our markets. Stemming from this belief,
we have launched a series of national, regional and
global partnerships to connect and empower the next
generation.
As part of our partnership with Education for
Employment (EFE), an initiative that provides youth with
the skills and opportunities necessary to build fruitful
careers, 195 Tunisian men and women were provided
with language training, 99% of whom were placed
in jobs. Through EFE’s Maghreb Startup Initiative we
also supported 13 startups, one of which (Chifco)
was chosen to compete in the Intel Global Challenge.
Three of our senior executives sit on EFE’s regional
and global boards, providing their strategic guidance
to the organization’s expansion.
In meeting young people’s aspirations to undertake
their studies at leading institutions, we established
two unique partnerships with the London School of
Economics (LSE): The PJD Wiles Scholarship and
the MSc in Finance and Private Equity. The PJD Wiles
Scholarship was awarded to 52 students who earned
Master’s degrees in diverse ?elds of specialization
between 2006 and 2011. The MSc in Finance and
Private Equity was launched in 2009, creating the
world’s only ?nance postgraduate degree with an
integrated specialization in the study of private equity.
The program graduated 132 students from around
the world, 58 of whom are actively pursuing careers in
the ?nancial sector. We also invested in The American
University in Cairo’s (AUC) Abraaj Group Professorship
in Private Equity, which has offered courses to 100+
students on business ?nance and private equity and
where our executives offered their insights on topics
such as investment analysis and the role of private
equity in economic growth.
To engage with youth and empower them on their
journey to leadership, we became a partner of the
Global Shapers Community in 2013, a network
of over 4,000 young leaders under the age of 30
across 350+ city hubs, and who are exceptional
in their potential, achievement and drive to make a
contribution to their communities. Abraaj’s support,
through our network and mentorship, enables the
Global Shapers to have impact in various sectors and
allows them to get a seat at the table when it comes
to global dialogue.
As of 2014, Abraaj held 20 knowledge-exchange
sessions with Global Shapers, and personally met
over 350 of them across 6 regions. We regularly
include youth perspectives into our events, by inviting
Global Shapers to attend and to speak on various
panels with global leaders. Over 100 Global Shapers
have requested speci?c mentorship from Abraaj
executives and will be connected with the relevant
experts across the world in 2015. Finally, we have
launched a “Growth Markets Grant” that will reward
at least 6 regional projects aimed at solving a critical
issue in select areas such as healthcare, anti-
corruption & security, employment, infrastructure or
education.
All of our markets are distinctive by one common feature, which is the age of their
population; they are young, aspirational and vibrant. Global Shapers is all about
empowered young people that are going to make a difference and we want to be
able to understand and help them on their journey into the future and enable it in any
way we can.
Arif Naqvi
Founder & Group Chief Executive, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 43
Our Impact on The
Next Generation
132 graduates, 50+ of whom are
pursuing careers in the ?nancial sector
50+ MSc scholarships awarded
In Cairo, participants have completed 64
hours of football training and 64 hours of
literacy classes through the pilot program
In Karachi, K-Electric organized youth
leagues that gave 1,400 underprivileged
children a platform on which to perform
The American
University
in Cairo
5+5+5
47 interviews conducted with Arab
role models globally to inspire
underprivileged youth
100+ students educated on business
?nance and private equity
Empowered 4,000+ young leaders
under the age of 30 across 350+
city hubs
Next
Generation
6,500
directly and
indirectly
impacted
$10mn
invested
Education for
Employment
195 young adults entered the job
market,13 startups seeded
Training and placing 145 unemployed
youth from Morocco and Tunisia
The American
University
in Cairo
London
School of
Economics
Global
Shapers
Arab
Excellence
Shake
the Net
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 44
Top: Abraaj RCA Innovation
Scholars (2014 cohort) with
Sajid Javid, UK Secretary
of State for Culture, Media
and Sport, and Arif Naqvi,
Founder and Group Chief
Executive, The Abraaj Group
Note: The ?fth Scholar was
not available at the time of this
picture
Left: Education for
Employment hosts Job
Placement Trainings across
the MENA region
Right: Global Shapers
Annual Curators Meeting
2014, supported by The
Abraaj Group
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 45
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 46
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Engaging with global thought leaders enables us to
constantly enhance our sustainability framework,
allowing us to stay ahead of the curve. To ensure
that we remain at the forefront of development in
the corporate sustainability ?eld, we established the
Abraaj Sustainability Council in 2013. The Council
is an independent advisory body comprising eight
eminent ?gures from various disciplines that acts as
our sounding board with regards to our sustainability
management framework and holds us accountable.
Being at the front and center of regional and global
dialogue is a necessary step for changing the
mindsets of our stakeholders and leading the world
towards impactful growth. ASSET’s comprehensive
stakeholder engagement approach allows us as a
Firm to in?uence current discourse on a multitude of
issues.
Growth Markets & Private Equity
We engage with multiple venture capital and private
equity platforms on Africa, Latin America and the
Middle East to remain on top of trends and challenges
in the industry.
On a global level, we have been longstanding partners
of Private Equity International (PEI) as well as the
Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).
To impact public-private sector dialogue around
economic expansion across global growth markets we
are active members of a North America-based leader
in this sphere, the Business Council for International
Understanding.
Governance & Sustainability
Being a signatory and board member of the
United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) as well
as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
enables us to drive dialogue around sustainability,
governance and human rights. We are also one of
the 100 signatory companies to the World Economic
Forum’s (WEF) Partnering Against Corruption
Initiative (PACI). Our collaboration with WEF also
extends to over ?ve key industry projects. Through
our active participation in the G8 Social Impact
Investment Taskforce and our membership in the
Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) Investors’
Council, we share our expertise and exchange
best practices that serve global decision making at
the highest levels. This is in addition to supporting
the establishment of Trade Out of Poverty (TOP)
to tackle trade barriers hindering the growth of the
world’s poorest countries.
Our senior management capitalizes on our
strategic partnerships to shape global action
around sustainable growth. As an example, we
advise WEF’s Global Agenda Councils around
entrepreneurship, healthcare, sustainability and
?nance and investments. Our Founder and Group
Chief Executive also co-chairs WEF’s Global
Infrastructure Initiative with Gordon Brown, former
Prime Minister of the UK, and is a member of the
B20 Investments and Infrastructure Taskforce that
tackles barriers to a conducive investment and
growth environment.
We collaborate with multiple local and international
thought leaders to further support and spread
principles of sustainability across the world’s private
and social sectors. We partner with the Pearl
Initiative, a leading non-pro?t network of business
leaders working across the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) to foster corporate accountability
through driving action, positive leadership and
sharing knowledge. We also supported the ?rst-of-
its-kind regional Corporate Sustainability Executive
Education program at AUC and regularly share
expertise and best practices with regional non-
pro?t organizations and businesses through our
membership in the Arab Foundations Forum (AFF).
In addition, Abraaj and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation joined forces to create Philanthropy
Age, a publication designed to change the nature of
philanthropy in the MENASA region and encourage
thoughtful giving that delivers a demonstrable social
return for every philanthropic dollar invested.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 47
> Business for Peace: Creating Shared Value Roundtable
> Global Philanthropy Forum
> Skoll World Forum
> Shared Value Leadership Summit
> The Abraaj Annual Forum
5+5+5
> African Venture Capital Association (AVCA)
> Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN)
> Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU)
> Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA)
> European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA)
> Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA)
> Middle East Private Equity Association (MEPEA)
> Private Equity International (PEI)
> Arab Foundations Forum (AFF)
> B20 Investments and Infrastructure Taskforce
> Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
> Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)
> Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
> G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce
> Pearl Initiative
> Philanthropy Age
> Principles of Responsible Investing (PRI)
> The American University in Cairo (AUC)
> Trade Out of Poverty (TOP)
> United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)
> World Economic Forum (WEF)
> Abraaj Academy
> Columbia University
> Harvard University
> IMD
> INSEAD
> London Business School
> London School of Economics
Thought
Leadership
$ 12mn
invested
30+
platforms
Private
Equity &
Growth
Markets
Governance
& Sustainability
Academia
Events
Our Impact on
Thought Leadership
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 48
ASSET goes to the heart
of our original ambitions
to be different and to
create our own path for
the development of our
global operations. Indeed,
the ASSET approach is an
integral part of our Group’s
culture.
Frederic Sicre
Managing Director, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 49
Academia
Leading universities such as Harvard, Stanford,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Wharton, Duke, London Business School and
Columbia regularly approach us to develop research
and case studies. A number of these case studies
now form part of the teaching curriculum in MBA
programs, including a case study prepared by the
Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy
School on one of our ParCos, K-Electric, the ?rst
such joint case study to be prepared for a private
?rm. Often such partnerships also develop into
long-term ones, allowing us to produce timely and
thought-provoking research and insight.
We are also founding members of INSEAD’s Global
Private Equity Initiative (GPEI), which works hand
in hand with private equity ?rms to create relevant
and timely knowledge. In addition, we are a learning
partner of the International Institute for Management
Development (IMD), where our Founder and
Group Chief Executive sits on the Foundation
Board alongside CEOs of the world’s 50 leading
companies.
In an effort to offer continuous training and
development to our stakeholders, we established
the Abraaj Academy in 2010, headed by Professor
Josh Lerner from Harvard University. The aim
of the Academy is to provide our investors and
stakeholders in different markets with tailor-made
learning sessions on various relevant topics in
the private equity industry such as corporate
responsibility, negotiations, operations, strategic
marketing and talent development among others. A
number of CEOs from our ParCos also participated
in tailored training programs organized in our
headquarters in collaboration with IMD, a leading
European institution.
Events
In 2014, we were invited to share our insights and
expertise with 1500+ professionals from around
the globe at various key events, including the Skoll
World Forum in Oxford, the Shared Value Leadership
Summit in New York, the Global Philanthropy Forum
in San Francisco as well as the Impact Forum in
Singapore.
In addition, we regularly convene a series of Abraaj-
led events on macro topics ranging from economic
shifts affecting the world, to sustainability, to
growth markets. In May 2014, we co-developed
a Shared Value roundtable in Oslo in collaboration
with Business for Peace. The roundtable gathered
100 top leaders representing the ownership in
companies with more than 2 million jobs.
The Abraaj Annual Forum is another example
that demonstrates our commitment to thought
leadership through multi-stakeholder dialogue. The
Forum provides a unique opportunity for senior
management of the Group to interact with investors
and international business leaders on the critical
trends emerging over the forthcoming year. As of
2014, we have held four Forums that have been
attended by leading industry ?gures and former
heads of state and ministers from Asia, Latin
America, Africa and the Middle East region.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 50
Top: Jim O’Neill, Sir
Martin Sorrell, Trevor
Manuel, Heizo Takenaka
and Sean Cleary
(Moderator) at the Abraaj
Annual Forum 2013
Left: Frederic Sicre at
the Global Philanthropy
Forum 2014 on the topic
of leveraging markets and
private sector ingenuity
as a key component
of poverty alleviation
strategies
Right: Our Founder and
Group Chief Executive at
the opening plenary of the
Skoll World Forum 2014
alongside Sir Richard
Branson
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 51
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 52
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 53
THE RIPPLE
EFFECT
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 54
You cannot separate
ESG from value creation
in high growth markets. It
is not optional; rather it is
integral to the long-term
sustainability of the private
sector as it contributes
to the development
of economies.
Wahid Hamid
Partner, The Abraaj Group
“
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 55
We always aspired to build on our unique strength
as a private equity ?rm and on the transformative
power we potentially carried in scaling our impact
through the ParCos in our portfolio. ASSET goes
beyond Abraaj and its 300 employees. Our unique
model aims to infuse our ethos and DNA within our
ParCos, and through them, drive even more value
creation in growth markets.
In addition to this, we developed the Abraaj
Sustainability Index (ASI), a proprietary tool that
measures over 40 quantitative and qualitative
indicators of Economic, Social and Governance
(ESG) practices across our ParCos. The ASI score
allows us to assess the evolution of ParCos’ ESG
performance over time and compare it to other
constituents of our investment portfolio. This is
supplemented by the integration of ESG principles in
our business and across our ParCos at all stages of
the investment process. These strategies capitalize
on our ability to revolutionize companies we invest in
as a private equity ?rm, which places us at a unique
vantage point to affect change among millions of
individuals.
The following examples demonstrate how several
of our ParCos do in fact carry on our philosophy,
creating ripples of change and engagement across
their own stakeholders, employees and value chains.
WHEN ESG MEETS ASSET:
BUILDING SUSTAINABLE
BUSINESSES AND
COMMUNITIES
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 56
Condor Travel is the leading inbound tour operator
company in Peru. It provides market opportunities
for 600+ local microbusinesses by including them
in its network of providers. Condor also engages its
stakeholders in the development of new tourism trails
that integrate typically marginalized areas into its portfolio
of destinations and in turn provide their residents with
social and economic expansion opportunities. As a result
of such an approach, the small Andean community of
Miamian, near Cusco, received a total of 653 tourists in
2012, bene?ting 300 families living there and representing
a 200% increase in revenues from 2011.
Condor Travel
families’ livelihoods
enhanced
300+
600+
local microbusinesses
empowered
ASSET
and ESG
VALUE CREATION IN ACTION
Latin America
Peru
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 57
Opalia* is a Tunisian pharmaceutical company started in
1998 by a remarkable entrepreneur, Dr. Alya El Hedda.
Dr. Hedda has grown Opalia diligently in stages over
the past two decades. In the 1990s, she focused
on nurturing Opalia’s Research and Development
Department to develop new drugs for registration. During
the 2000s she focused on maturing the company and
increasing Opalia’s generic drug production. By 2007,
she had over 150 drug offerings, a brand new facility
and was experiencing double-digit growth, making
Opalia one of the top three generic producers in Tunisia.
In 2009, since our investment in Opalia, we worked
together to expand the company’s footprint to include
10 countries. Currently, 60% of Opalia’s staff is female.
Through the Founder’s skillful management and our
strategic advice, this ethical business has been and
continues to be pro?table, enabling marginalized citizens
from Libya to the Atlantic with access to quality and
affordable medication.
* Abraaj exited Opalia in 2013.
ASSET
and ESG
Opalia
offered across
10 countries
150
affordable drug
offerings
60%
of Opalia’s staff
is female
Sustainable capitalism results from
investors and entrepreneurs, as
critical components of the economic
ecosystem, taking full responsibility
for their net impact on society, and
investing for an identi?ed deliberate
impact and in businesses that
inherently foster impact.”
Sev Vettivetpillai
Partner, The Abraaj Group
“
North Africa
Tunisia
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 58
The Nairobi Women’s Hospital (NWH) is the ?rst of its
kind in the East and Central African region. It is focused
on providing obstetric and gynecological services as well
as all other general, medical and surgical procedures
for women and their families. With our support, the
Nairobi Women’s Hospital (NWH) expanded from a 50+
to 250+ bed facility. The hospital’s structure was also
institutionalized through the introduction of a governance
body that continuously monitors and enhances its
performance. In aligning its community engagement
efforts with its core business, NWH now implements a
Gender Violence and Recovery Centre (GVRC) which
has served over 20,000 victims of rape and domestic
violence to date. NWH has also introduced a nursing
school, thus increasing the pool of skilled employees
available in Kenya as a whole.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kenya
ASSET
and ESG
Nairobi
Women’s
Hospital
of patients are from
marginalized communities
Serves 20,000+ victims
of violence through its
Gender Violence and
Recovery Centre
60%+
beds expanded from 50+
250+
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 59
South Asia
Pakistan
K-Electric, incorporated in 1913, is the only remaining
vertically integrated power utility in Pakistan with exclusive
franchising rights to serve Karachi, Pakistan’s largest
city, and its surrounding areas. It has a 2.3 million-strong
customer base, a workforce of more than 17,000
employees and is listed on all three Pakistan stock
exchanges. Through our investment, K-Electric was made
pro?table for the ?rst time in 17 years. The company
was suffering from a multitude of issues including
severe underinvestment, operational weaknesses and
misalignment among various stakeholders. Apart from
a capital injection and an increase in energy generation
capacity of 1,000 MW since 2012, Abraaj upgraded
K-Electric through a turnaround strategy based on broad
multi-stakeholder engagement. The strategy revolved
around rebuilding the social contract that united K-Electric
to its internal and external stakeholders and thus regaining
trust. It included initiating a project that aims to turn 4,200
tons of waste from a 400,000 cattle colony into a state-
of-the-art bio gas plant, sponsoring employee’s children
to enroll in vocational training, providing free electricity
to several healthcare facilities in the country as well as
creating platforms for young and upcoming sports players
to harness their talents. By 2012, K-Electric issued
Pakistan’s ?rst GRI A-rated integrated sustainability report,
representing an unprecedented level of disclosure and
stakeholder engagement. As a result of these initiatives,
K-Electric was awarded the FT/IFC Transformational
Business Awards in 2014.
ASSET
and ESG
K-Electric
320
school units provided
with electricity
500
underprivileged children
engaged in football leagues
4000+
tons of waste turned
into bio gas
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 60
Through our ASSET strategy we have been
able to impact and engage with a wide array
of stakeholders across global growth markets.
We have spearheaded key initiatives through a
combination of our ?nancial resources, our technical
expertise and our holistic approach. ASSET’s growth
has mirrored that of our Firm, and our stakeholder
model is now carried out across all of our regions,
including Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey and Central
Asia, and Latin America.
To date, we have invested a total of US$ 100+
million into over 100 global and regional initiatives
and partners. More importantly, through our 5+5+5
program, our executives and employees have
invested 10,000 hours of their time in providing
invaluable expertise and efforts across ASSET’s four
core pillars, to enable entrepreneurship, to foster
art and innovation, to empower the next generation
and to further thought leadership. We are also
infusing our approach to doing business responsibly
and sustainably in each of our ParCos, thus
perpetuating a positive ripple effect as they pass on
our philosophy to their own stakeholders, employees
and supply chains.
In our experience, we know that creating a
sustainable business means that by default you are
creating a successful one. Existing in a silo will no
longer be a viable option for a business that wants
to continue to thrive. For any CEO who cares to
look, the fact of the matter is that businesses will not
pro?t from allowing today’s challenges, whether they
be social, environmental or economic, to continue.
THE STORY
CONTINUES
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 61
Our experience in the last 12 years has
consolidated our belief in the power of long-
term thinking. This mindset shift drives a
new and healthy way of looking at the role of
business; one that is deeply interconnected
with macro and micro trends, such as the
pace of technology and innovation, the
power of youth, urbanization and growing
inequalities, to name just a few.
A stakeholder model is key to any business
operating in today’s complex world, allowing
us to be better prepared for the critical
challenges we face as a society, and for the
opportunities that lie ahead of us to shape our
collective future.
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 62
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GROUP
Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) 63
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