(Bloomberg) — An Abu Dhabi firm with investments ranging from Getty Images to Rihanna’s lingerie company is scouting for opportunities to deploy an $817 million warchest.
“It’s a buyer’s market. It’s a good time to be sitting on a pile of cash,” Multiply Group Chief Executive Officer Samia Bouazza said in an interview. “We’re in a very active acquisitive mode looking for the right opportunities.”
The tech-focused holding company plans to spend more than 3 billion dirhams ($817 million) on investments in sectors including media, wellness and beauty, and the digital economy. Through its ventures arm, it will target investments in sectors benefiting from a post-Covid boom, including software and e-commerce.
“We believe we will find a lot of opportunities globally,” Bouazza said, adding that the firm would like the allocation to be fairly distributed across its verticals.
Multiply went public in December, raising 3.1 billion dirhams. Its parent company, International Holding Company, is led by Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan — the United Arab Emirates’s national security adviser and brother to Abu Dhabi’s de-facto ruler.
Multiply shares have risen 40% since listing, while profit for the year has surged to 225 million dirhams from just under 4 million in 2020. Its other investments include PAL Cooling and Emirates Driving Company in the UAE, and digital media platform Firefly in the U.S.
“We are very growth-oriented,” Bouazza said. “The money that we have to deploy in 2022 and beyond is geared toward resilient companies that are profitable.”
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