Hawkamah, in cooperation with leading private equity firms in the Middle East and North Africa region, have developed draft guidelines for the PE industry in the region.
The aim of these draft guidelines is two-fold. Firstly, to support PE firms in diffusing corporate governance practices within their portfolio companies by formulating the basic governance principles that are relevant to the PE backed companies in the MENA region. Secondly, the objective is to identify the best governance practices within the PE firms themselves, especially in relation to stakeholder confidence building measures such as transparency and disclosure.
The PE Task Force believes that MENA private equity should play a critical role in diffusing good corporate governance practices across portfolio companies in terms of board structures, administrative procedures, disclosure requirements and minority interest protection. These facilitate the conversion from family firms into institutions and from non-listed to listed companies from which all parties and stakeholders benefit: surveys show that investors are willing to pay a premium for companies practicing good corporate governance.