Brunei royals back foundation of new Wall Street bank
Members of the Royal Family of Brunei are among the financial backers of a plan by former Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan to launch a new merchant bank in the US with seed capital of no less than $3 billion.
Dougan, an American banker who headed Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank and one of the largest worldwide, from 2007 to 2015, got the backing of Scepter Partners, an investment platform for sovereign wealth and large-cap family offices from the UAE, Qatar and Brunei.
The new bank, whose name has yet to be determined, is slated to launch in spring 2017 and aims to make investments across a number of industries while providing investment banking and trading services, competing with Wall Street firms in capital-intensive businesses. The bank is expected to draw additional investors, including Dougan himself, and additional debt could provide it with billions of dollars more beyond Scepter’s $3 billion investment.
The fact that oil-rich families form the Gulf and Brunei, which have long used traditional banks and private-equity firms as intermediaries to financial activities, now start their own banking ventures shows that they are seeking new ways of business in times of volatile oil prices.
Scepter Partners, which is domiciled in Bermuda, is a spin-off of investment firm BMB (formerly Brunei Merchant Bank), which combined the resources of BMB’s sovereign and institutional core investors in 2015. Scepter is said to have about $14 billion in discretionary funds from a network of ultra-wealthy families and sovereign funds with a cumulated net worth of over $100 billion.
Two members of the Royal Brunei Family are members of Scepter’s board of directors, namely Prince Abdul Ali Yil Kabier and Prince Bahar Bolkiah, who are also co-founders, alongside Dubai’s Shaikh Juma al Maktoum and former US ambassador to Qatar Patrick Theros, representing the Qatari Royal Family. The board is chaired by Rayo Withanage, long-time money manager of the Royal Brunei Family.
The company is run by Anthony Steains, formerly head of Asia corporate finance at Lehman Brothers, and the former Blackstone Asia Advisory Partners Team.
Members of the Royal Family of Brunei are among the financial backers of a plan by former Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan to launch a new merchant bank in the US with seed capital of no less than $3 billion. Dougan, an American banker who headed Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank and one of the largest worldwide, from 2007 to 2015, got the backing of Scepter Partners, an investment platform for sovereign wealth and large-cap family offices from the UAE, Qatar and Brunei. The new bank, whose name has yet to be determined, is slated to launch in spring 2017...
Members of the Royal Family of Brunei are among the financial backers of a plan by former Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan to launch a new merchant bank in the US with seed capital of no less than $3 billion.
Dougan, an American banker who headed Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-largest bank and one of the largest worldwide, from 2007 to 2015, got the backing of Scepter Partners, an investment platform for sovereign wealth and large-cap family offices from the UAE, Qatar and Brunei.
The new bank, whose name has yet to be determined, is slated to launch in spring 2017 and aims to make investments across a number of industries while providing investment banking and trading services, competing with Wall Street firms in capital-intensive businesses. The bank is expected to draw additional investors, including Dougan himself, and additional debt could provide it with billions of dollars more beyond Scepter’s $3 billion investment.
The fact that oil-rich families form the Gulf and Brunei, which have long used traditional banks and private-equity firms as intermediaries to financial activities, now start their own banking ventures shows that they are seeking new ways of business in times of volatile oil prices.
Scepter Partners, which is domiciled in Bermuda, is a spin-off of investment firm BMB (formerly Brunei Merchant Bank), which combined the resources of BMB’s sovereign and institutional core investors in 2015. Scepter is said to have about $14 billion in discretionary funds from a network of ultra-wealthy families and sovereign funds with a cumulated net worth of over $100 billion.
Two members of the Royal Brunei Family are members of Scepter’s board of directors, namely Prince Abdul Ali Yil Kabier and Prince Bahar Bolkiah, who are also co-founders, alongside Dubai’s Shaikh Juma al Maktoum and former US ambassador to Qatar Patrick Theros, representing the Qatari Royal Family. The board is chaired by Rayo Withanage, long-time money manager of the Royal Brunei Family.
The company is run by Anthony Steains, formerly head of Asia corporate finance at Lehman Brothers, and the former Blackstone Asia Advisory Partners Team.
Here goes Rayo again. The story never changes and for years and years and years the guy never executed ONE single deal. Is he for real? Anyone who understands and has connections in the Middle East knows that he has no backing there whatsoever.