Arif Naqvi and his Dubai-based Abraaj Group were pioneers of private sector impact investment in emerging markets. Impact investing was a simple idea: private money is invested to build resilient economies in places as diverse as Ghana, Mexico, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Kenya and the Middle East to improve healthcare, education, clean energy and access to consumer goods, while delivering returns for investors. The Abraaj Group (Abraaj means 'towers' in Arabic) had just shy of $14 billion under management by 2017; they were on the threshold of closing a new fund that would invest $6 billion into these emerging markets.
One of their most successful investments had been in Karachi Electric, the sale of which had been agreed to a Chinese energy giant, and a sizeable chunk of that new fund was going to come from Chinese investors. Then Donald Trump entered the White House, China became corporate enemy number one and the President's friends in private equity, who wanted a piece of the emerging markets action, could now see a way to get it.
What followed was straight from the US playbook of deploying economic hitmen to annihilate their commercial and geopolitical enemies, culminating on 10 April 2019 with Naqvi being arrested at Heathrow Airport in a joint UKUS operation seeking his extradition to the United States.
The dominant media narrative has painted Naqvi as an evil genius, the so-called key man in an organised criminal conspiracy that is alleged to have lasted years but actually amounts to potential regulatory breaches which are usually dealt with, for those who are 'one of us', by fines and reprimands rather than threats of hundreds of years in jail.
However, in this extraordinary investigation based on extensive documentary research and dozens of interviews with the key players, Brian Brivati sets out to provide rather different answers to the key questions that comprise this tale.
About the Author :
Brian Brivati had a twenty-year academic career at the Institute of Contemporary British History and then Kingston University as professor of contemporary history, human rights and life writing. In 2009 he left academia to run the John Smith Trust and went on to become a special adviser and mentor to emerging leaders.
Icarus is his sixth book. His most recent was a profile and memoir of his colleague in Iraq for the past ten years, Dr Ghassan Jawad, called The Last Optimist in Baghdad. He is currently working with former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on his account of the Iraq war of liberation against Daesh, Impossible Victory: How Iraq Defeated ISIS.
Review :
“If Abraaj had been allowed to sell its shares in K-Electric to Shanghai Electric, Arif Naqvi would be a free man today. There is more here than meets the eye. How and why was this deal blocked? This book sets out to answer those questions.” - Shahid Abbasi, former Prime Minister of Pakistan “Doing good and making money should not be incompatible. Arif Naqvi was the leading advocate of how to use private equity to make a difference and his life and achievements deserve a scholarly and balanced assessment to counter the tabloid headlines. Icarus, based on an astonishing depth of research, provides just that.” - David Charters, former diplomat turned investment banker and businessman and co-founder of the Beacon Prize for Philanthropy "Finally, a narrative worth waiting for" - Daily Pakistan
