Gulf Credit makes two senior hires

Gulf Credit Partners has made two senior appointments to expand the reach of its credit platform in the Middle East.

Omar Rifai joins the debt arm of private equity investor Gulf Capital as a managing director, while Majd Khodr becomes a vice-president.

Rifai will be based in Dubai and joins from Standard Chartered Private Equity where he was a founding member of its Middle East and North Africa business and head of portfolio management. At SCPE he led private equity and mezzanine investments in the region.

Before joining SCPE he worked as a special situations analyst at credit hedge fund DiMaio Ahmad Capital and has also worked in the leveraged finance group at CIBC World Markets in New York.

Khodr joins from mezzanine investor Malaz Capital and has experience in sourcing, diligence, structuring and documentation.

Gulf Credit Partners said the hires mean its senior leadership team is now fully staffed and has more than 100 years of collective experience. The team is led by senior managing director Christopher Foll.

Commenting on the appointments, Foll said: “With these senior hires, Gulf Capital now has one of the largest and most experienced mezzanine teams in the Middle East and is well positioned to continue its leadership of the private debt sector across the Middle East and Africa.”