PineBridge appoints Middle East execs

PineBridge has appointed Sabah Khalil Al Moayyed as chairwoman of the board of directors.

PineBridge Investments Middle East has appointed two executives to its board of directors, according to a statement.

Sabah Khalil Al Moayyed has been named chairwoman and Anthony Mallis as vice chairman. Al Moayyed was previously general manager and executive director of Eskan Bank, and Mallis was chief executive of Securities and Investment Company.

Sabah Khalil Al Moayyed
Sabah Khalil Al Moayyed

PineBridge Middle East is based in Bahrain and also covers investments in North Africa and Turkey. The firm primarily invests in private equity and real estate in the region and is also in negotiations to purchase two private equity fund stakes.

According to Steve Costabile, global head of the private funds group, the funds PineBridge is trying to buy into consist of small and mid-market South African companies in the consumer durables and staples sectors.

Still, Africa is at least five or six years away from having a thriving secondaries market, Costabile told Secondaries Investor last month.

“It’s not like you won’t see some opportunities to do secondaries, [but] we’re simply not going to have the critical mass of mature primary investment [for several years].”

PineBridge is in market with its third global secondaries fund, which had collected roughly $188 million toward its $500 million target as of July. PineBridge’s prior secondaries fund closed on $719 million in 2007 and is fully invested, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division.