Arcapita

Arcapita, a private equity and real estate business, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, which has "been buying U.S. businesses and properties since 1997." Arcapita (formerly Crescent Capital Investments Inc.) and its Bahrain-based parent Arcapita Bank (formerly the First Islamic Investment Bank) changed their names and adopted a new logo on March 15, 2005. "The companies also have a London affiliate. Combined, the three groups have 140 employees and made a profit of $70.5 million in 2004." [1][2][3]

"The new name and corporate logo, developed and designed by Future Brands, a leading US-based branding and corporate identity company, according to First Islamic is an amalgam of the words Arc and Capital. Arc signifies the straddling of First Islamic’s business demography from Atlanta in the US to London in the UK and to Bahrain in the Middle East. Capital signifies the building block of finance." [4]

"Most of the bank's 100 shareholders and 600-plus investors are Muslim. But most are not the oil-rich royal families one might expect. Instead, they are business owners hailing from Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Oman, with combined assets of more than $500 billion." [5]

Holdings

"Since 1998, Crescent Capital has made 16 corporate investments worth nearly $2 billion and equity commitments of about $1 billion, it said. This includes Crescent Capital's recent high profile acquisitions of TLC Healthcare Services, Church's Chicken for $390 million and Loehmann's for $177 million," according to the February 28, 2005, Atlanta Business Chronicle. [6]

"Each investment was approved by a Muslim committee in Bahrain as fitting within the boundaries of Shari'ah, the Islamic law that dictates how practitioners conduct themselves, including in business matters." [7]

Additional holdings cited as of February 14, 2005:

• Caribou Coffee Company, "the nation's second largest company-owned specialty retailer of premium brewed and roasted whole bean coffee"
• Cirrus Industries, Inc., "the largest manufacturer of single-engine, piston-powered, general aviation aircraft in the world"
• Lee Industries, "the leading U.S. manufacturer of commercial paving equipment"
• DVT Corporation, "a provider of technology-based machine vision systems"
• Smart Document Solutions, "the leading provider of medical records release of information services in the United States"
• Transportation Safety Technologies, "a technological leader in the manufacture of specialty electrical components and safety products for truck, utility and emergency vehicles in the United States"
• WaterMark Paddlesports, Inc., "one of the premier outdoor sporting goods companies in the nation"
• American Pad and Paper, "a manufacturer and distributor of legal pads and related office supplies" [8]

Governance

• Atif A. Abdulmalik, CEO; also CEO of First Islamic Investment Bank
• David Crosland
• Charles Ogburn, Executive Director

Public Relations Firms

• Hope-Beckham, Inc. [9]

Other Affiliations

• Raymond E. Baltz, partner in King & Spalding, represents Arcapita, Inc. [10]

Contact Information

Arcapita Bank B.S.C.(c)
P.O. Box 1406
Manama
Bahrain
Telephone: +973 17 218333
Facsimile: +973 17 217555

Arcapita Inc.
75 Fourteenth Street, 24th Floor
Atlanta, GA 30309
USA
Telephone: +1 (404) 920 9000
Facsimile: +1 (404) 920 9001

Arcapita Limited
15 Sloane Square, 2nd Floor
London SW1W 8ER
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 20 7824 5600
Facsimile: +44 20 7824 5601

Website: http://www.crescentcapital.com/

External links

• Meredith Jordan, "Atlanta's Mideast connection. 'We are not afraid,' says head of Bahrain-based Crescent Capital," Atlanta Business Chronicle, October 19, 2001.
• M.A.A. Kahn, "The Other Coffee Boycott," Media Monitors Network, September 4, 2002.
• Benno Groeneveld, "New Caribou Coffee CEO takes over," Atlanta Business Journal, January 15, 2003.
• "Caribou, Coke sign deal," Atlanta Business Journal, June 26, 2003.
• "Atlanta firm buys office products maker," Atlanta Business Chronicle, August 26, 2003.
• "Crescent Capital to sell part of Medifax-EDI to WebMD," Atlanta Business Chronicle, October 20, 2003.
• Eric Larson, "Honoring Shari'ah," July-August 2004: "Crescent Capital, with a trio of alumni on board, is an American company that adheres to an ancient Islamic code in deciding where to put its investors’ money."
• Jill Lerner, "A $177M off-price deal. Atlanta's Crescent Capital buys discount retailer Loehmann's," Atlanta Business Chronicle, October 22, 2004.
• "AFC Enterprises finds buyer for Church's Chicken," Atlanta Business Chronicle, November 1, 2004.
• "Crescent Capital to buy Cypress Communications," Atlanta Business Chronicle, November 8, 2004.
• Barney Gimbel, "Loehmann's New Owner Keeps the Faith," CNN Money, February 7, 2005.
• "Crescent Capital Investments buys health-care firm," Atlanta Business Chronicle, February 14, 2005.
• Joshua Levs, "Mideast Investors Increasingly Buying into U.S. Firms," NPR, February 25, 2005.
• Mushtak Parker, "First Islamic Changes Its Name," Arab News, February 28, 2005.
• Toni, "Coffee Addicts - Read This and Weep - Caribou Backed by 1st Islamic Investment Bank," View from Tonka, July 26, 2005.