Carlyle enters Saudi with stake in lighting firm

Private equity firm The Carlyle Group yesterday said it had acquired a 30 per cent stake in Saudi Arabia's General Lighting Company, the kingdom's largest lighting fixture manufacturer.

Carlyle did not provide financial details for the transaction, which closed yesterday and marks the fund's first investment in Saudi Arabia, the largest economy in the Middle East.

Equity for this investment, Carlyle's third in the Mena region, will come from Carlyle Mena Partners, a growth capital and buyout fund that closed in March 2009. Carlyle, which worldwide has nearly $90 billion (Dh330bn) of assets under management, established its Middle Eastern presence in 2007 and has now regional offices in Cairo, Dubai and Istanbul.

An official release quoted Walid Musallam, Carlyle Managing Director and Head of Carlyle Mena, as saying it was the first investment in Saudi Arabia and second in the Mena region in the past three months.