MerchantBridge starts fund to invest in Iraq equities

MerchantBridge & Co Ltd, a private equity company backed by Arabian Gulf investors, started a fund to invest in the Iraq stock market and plans another targeting infrastructure in Iraq, its chief operating officer said.

“I’m confident that this will be followed by another fund to invest in infrastructure, construction and the banking sector,” Eric le Blan said in an interview in Abu Dhabi on Monday. “We’ll also carry on with individual investments, particularly in the oil and gas sector, as there’s huge potential there.”

The Mesopotamia Equity Fund Ltd. will invest across all sectors of the Iraqi Stock Exchange, whose market capitalization has doubled to $3 billion in the past five years and has more than 90 listed companies, MerchantBridge said in an e-mailed statement earlier on Monday.

The company is also looking at investments in Saudi Arabia and Qatar in telecoms, finance, and oil and gas, le Blan said.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/merchantbridge-starts-fund-invest-in-iraq-equities-357116.html