Gulf Capital, one of the most active and diversified alternative asset managers in the Gulf region, Sunday announced the successful final closing of its third private equity fund, GC Equity Partners Fund III (Fund III), at $750 million (AED2.76 billion.

The new control-oriented growth buy-out fund, focused primarily on the GCC, is the largest raised by Gulf Capital to date and the largest private equity fund raising effort in the Middle East over the last three years. The investors in GC Equity Partners Fund III include a significant number of regional and international limited partners comprising Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds, Endowments, Funds of Funds, insurance companies, family offices and other institutional clients.

Close to 60 percent of external investors are from the United States, Europe and the Far East, highlighting the appeal of the GCC region to global investors. Fund III is a successor to the highly successful $533 million (AED1.962 billion) GC Equity Partners Fund II that closed in early 2010 and that ranks among the top decile performers globally when compared to emerging markets private equity peers.

Launched less than a year ago with a target of $550 million (AED2.024 billion), Fund III had a first closing in January 2014 and was significantly oversubscribed above its hard-cap of AED2.76 billion ($750 million) in October, 2014.

The final closing of Fund III brings Gulf Capital’s total assets under management to over $3.3 billion (over AED12 billion) across its four business units — private equity, credit and mezzanine, real estate development and principal investments.

Karim El Solh, CEO and managing partner, Private Equity, at Gulf Capital commented: "Our successful fundraising and the caliber of the institutional investors who committed to our new private equity fund is a testament to the solid performance our team has delivered to our investors since inception.”

Muhannad Qubbaj, MD, private equity, who is also responsible for fundraising, said: "We are very excited about and grateful for the continued support from existing and new investors in Fund III. We have received increased commitments from our long time partners who have invested with GC Equity Partners Fund II and from new partners who have believed in the firm's disciplined and active strategy, as well as the performance of the team that has yielded our investors a net IRR of over 25 percent, in value, as of today.”