Joining us today is Omar AlYawer, Founding Partner and Chief Capital Formation Officer at Ruya Partners, an Abu Dhabi based private credit firm providing flexible financing for businesses in the GCC and broader MENA region. Thank you for joining us today, Omar. It's a pleasure having you.
Thank you for having me.
Private credit has become one of the largest asset classes globally. At Ruya Partners, what gaps did you see in the market and what challenges were you trying to address?
Thank you for that. Private credit has been growing quite exponentially globally, and more specifically in the Middle East, over two phases. Phase one started back in 2009, when my partners and I initially launched our first business under a different name. Private credit 2.0 — which is when we started Ruya Partners in 2020 — is really addressing the mid-market gap that exists, particularly in the UAE, GCC, and the wider MENA. These are great corporations, mid-market in size, that need growth finance, and simply the banks in the region or traditional financing don't address this gap. So they go on for many years without having the right capital to grow appropriately.
For our viewers who are not familiar with private credit, can you explain the differences between institutional bank lending and what you provide?
Happy to. Bank lending in the GCC has historically served two needs: large government projects, and large family groups that banks have known for a long time and can lean on — groups with hard assets like land, real estate, or other physical collateral. What we lend to is cash flow. We lend to cash flow generative businesses that have great fundamentals but are typically asset-light. When a business is asset-light, it generally cannot get the type of flexible, four to five year financing from banks that would allow it to grow. Unlike banks, which typically have a rigid term sheet that a borrower either meets or doesn't, we sit with the borrower, understand their cash flow, and build a financing structure that actually fits within their current cash flow — without requiring any assumed growth. It simply allows them to grow at their current cash flow pace. And if there are upside participation possibilities, we can address those as well.
So it sounds like a more bespoke solution for small and medium businesses trying to access the market.
Correct. Absolutely.
You chose to set up in ADGM. Why specifically did you choose ADGM as your home, and what were the benefits of joining that ecosystem?
We were fortunate enough to join ADGM in late 2020 — December 2020 was when we launched. With the help of one of our anchor investors, we established Ruya Partners as the Middle East's first and only partner-owned private credit firm, meaning myself and my two partners are the owners of the business. That is quite common in the West but quite unusual and first of its kind here in the Middle East. Establishing in ADGM as it was growing — and it has since become so much larger — allowed us to reach local, regional, and international investors while operating within the ADGM framework for private credit investing. When investors look at us as an investment house, they know we are licensed through ADGM and that we follow the private credit regime guidelines ADGM has created. That gives them confidence that we are doing things properly, in the way Western managers have done for many years.
Can you tell us the GymNation story — and what that success means for the region in terms of private credit?
Happily. Two years ago, we provided GymNation — the UAE's leading fitness chain with 50,000 members at the time — with a $25 million private credit investment. The purpose was to allow them to grow further, buy back their equity shares from JD Sports, and expand into Saudi Arabia. Fast forward two years: they have now grown to 200,000 members across 50 locations. They reached the point where they needed significantly more financing to continue that growth. A major global private credit manager then refinanced our original $25 million and provided a total financing package of $100 million just a few weeks ago, allowing GymNation to grow even further. It was a success for us, a success for GymNation, and a success for that global manager in making their first private credit investment in the Middle East.
That's an amazing story. We would love to have you back. Thank you so much for joining us today.
I'd be glad to. Thank you very much.
