Abraaj’s founder Arif Naqvi contracts coronavirus

• Arif Naqvi is going through treatment at a private health center.
• Last year, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) fined two entities of private equity firm Abraaj $315 million, the largest financial penalties it had ever imposed.

Pakistan born financier Arif Naqvi, the founder of the now-defunct Middle Eastern firm Abraaj Group has reported having contracted the coronavirus.

As per details, Naqvi is going through treatment at a private health center and is of “on the road to recovery”.

“Today is my 4th day in the health center and I am hoping that they [hospital staff] will let me go home soon; my cough is certainly much better, my oxygen saturation is heading in the best instructions,” he said. Naqvi informed that he is still feeling low on energy however, it is something natural as his body is recuperating from the infection.

Last year, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) fined two entities of private equity firm Abraaj $315 million, the largest financial penalties it had ever imposed.

In the first major fines on Abraaj, which collapsed in 2018, DFSA imposed a penalty of around $300 million on Abraaj Investment Management Ltd (AIML) and $15.3 million on Abraaj Capital Ltd. The fines were imposed for “serious wrongdoing by two Abraaj group companies included carrying out unauthorised activities in the DIFC and misusing investors' monies," the regulator said.

Abraaj, which filed for provisional liquidation in June 2018 in the Cayman Islands, was the largest buyout fund in the Middle East and North Africa until a row with investors over the use of money in a $1 billion healthcare fund.