Washington, DC – Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced it has completed raising its first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) fund, Carlyle MENA Partners, with equity commitments of $500 million. The fund will invest primarily in healthy, growing companies in various sectors, including energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, infrastructure, technology and transportation in the MENA region.

Walid Musallam, Carlyle Managing Director and Head of the MENA team, said, “We are grateful to our investors for the confidence they have placed in us. We are disciplined investors, and have been cautious about investing in the pre-global crisis environment of high valuations. The current market environment represents an opportunity for experienced investors to deploy capital at significantly more favorable valuations than existed last year. We believe we are well placed to capitalize on opportunities that offer considerable returns for our investors while minimizing downside risk. We have an excellent team of investment professionals with exceptional standards of training and experience and unparalleled insight into the markets.”

Carlyle’s MENA team was established in March 2007. From offices in Cairo, Dubai and Istanbul, Carlyle’s team of 12 professionals targets investments in Turkey, North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia), the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), the Levant (Lebanon and Jordan) and Pakistan.

To date, Carlyle MENA has made one investment in July 2008, acquiring a 50 percent stake in TVK Gemi Yapim Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., a Turkish shipbuilder specializing in the construction of chemical tankers and other specialty vessels.

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