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Dubai: Dubai International Capital LLC, the private equity arm of Dubai's sovereign wealth fund, has rejected two deals in the past month because they might meet political opposition in the US, Managing Director Andrew Wright said.
The company, which invests $12 billion on behalf of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, frequently rejects proposed transactions that risk opposition from US lawmakers or would provoke national security concerns, Wright said.
"We have to make very harsh evaluations even before we start the negotiating process," Wright said in an interview in Washington on Wednesday. He said the company has legal advisers based in Washington to evaluate whether a transaction would face serious opposition.
Wright and executives from Dubai Holdings, the company that controls Dubai International Capital and Dubai Group, were in Washington this week to meet with members of Congress in an effort to make them more comfortable with the funds' investment strategy.
The effort is a reaction to the unease among US politicians over the growth of sovereign wealth funds, pools of investment capital controlled by foreign governments. Two years ago, opposition from lawmakers, citing national security concerns, forced a Dubai company to sell control of several US ports it had acquired. Members of Congress also rewrote the rules surrounding foreign purchases of US companies.
Wright said Dubai International Capital has successfully ushered three transactions through the Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which reviews deals when foreign entities acquire a controlling stake in a US company.
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