MENA Private Equity Association, Hawkamah focus on advancing corporate governance in private equity sector

One of the objectives of this collaboration is to re-assess the current governance practices in the private equity industry and build on it to produce a policy brief, which would be supplemented with tools and procedures for private equity stakeholders.

Imad Ghandour, Co-founder of the Association, said, "Corporate governance helps growing businesses, and can have a significant impact on the quality of operations. The partnership with Hawkamah will help formalizing the standards of governance that private equity brings to the table to its investee companies. Invariably, well governed companies command higher premiums at exit."

Nick Nadal, Head of Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance, commented, "We are pleased to partner with the MENA Private Equity Association, focusing on corporate governance practices in the private equity sector. One of the main challenges that the private sector currently face is to go beyond the existing regulation and focus on the implementation of corporate governance best practices to support the value creation process. This is the essence of what the Hawkamah - Association partnership is attempting to address."

As part of the MOU, Hawkamah and the Association commit to raise corporate governance awareness through a series of joint case studies, white papers, workshops and development program dedicated to the private equity sector for private equity managers and investee companies.

Hawkamah will also offer its corporate governance expertise and services in assisting members of the Association in their efforts to strengthen their corporate governance practices and those of their investee companies, at all stages of the investment cycle from due diligence through to the exit.

The MOU is part of the Hawkamah Private Equity Task Force, which aims to assist the PE Industry in the MENA region by developing corporate governance principles and practice guidelines. The task force has issued a survey assessing the corporate governance status in MENA PE industry and developed specific guidelines to be adopted by PE firms and their portfolio companies in MENA. The survey was carried out in consultation with the UNPRI. PE firms from 7 countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Tunisia participated in the survey.