Syed Rizwan Ahmed

Syed Rizwan Ahmed

Partner

Rizwan is a senior finance and investment professional with close to 30 years of professional experience behind him. He specializes in business valuations, mergers & acquisitions involving buyouts / acquisition of majority and minority stakes in cross-border deals, creating tax efficient structures, business transformation and turnarounds, risk management and internal audit and leading finance and operation functions of businesses of various sizes including large corporates and multinational organizations.

He is currently leading the management advisory function of the Prodigyway International firm based out of the UAE.In his previous roles, he has worked with Big4 accounting and advisory firms (PwC, Pakistan), large multinational corporates (Kinnevik AB, Sweden), semi / quasi-governmental groups (Dubai Holdings, UAE), and large private equity firms (Abraaj Group, MENA and Turkey). He also advises various groups in their business operations (Riyada Managers, BV), and has been a member of various Supervisory Boards and Limited Partner Advisory Committees (Kantara LP, Scotland, Abraaj North Africa Fund II, UK) as well as serving as
New Project (2)

finance expert in Audit Committees (Saudi Tadawi Healthcare Company, KSA, Kudu Company for Food and Catering, KSA, Stanford Marine Group, UAE). As part of Abraaj’s core operational team, Rizwan was instrumental in developing the Corporate Governance Framework for various funds, investment companies and management companies including the following:


  • A US$ 375m Private Equity fund investing in the Middle East and North Africa region. The team invested in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt in various sectors including Healthcare, Education, FMCG and Industrials and returning 2.0x multiples at an IRR of 18%.
  • A US$ 150m education platform involving Middlesex university (UAE) and Taaleem Management Services (Egypt).
  • AUS$ 200m healthcare platform comprising of Cleopatra Hospital Group (Egypt) and Taoufik Hospital Group (Tunisia).
  • Some of the other projects led by Rizwan or where he has been an integral part of the core team include:
  • Advised sell side on successful completion of the sale of Middlesex university to Amanat Holdings and The Entertainer FZ LLC to GFH Financial Group.
  • Business transformation of the largest shisha manufacturer out of the region (Al Fakher Tobacco Company, Jordan) and Savola Foods, KSA).
  • Establishment of the New York edition of the largest free newspaper The Metro.

Rizwan is a fellow member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan and also holds an Associate membership of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.