Crescent Enterprises

Updated on Dec 12, 2023

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Industry Conglomerate Founded 2007		Area served Worldwide

Key people Badr Jafar (Chief Executive Officer) Products Ports & logistics; power & engineering; business aviation; healthcare, private equity and business incubation Website crescententerprises.com Parent organization Crescent Group Company Limited

Crescent Enterprises is a multinational company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates with diversified businesses that function under three main divisions – Group Companies, Crescent Investments, and CE-Ventures. It spans several sectors including ports and logistics, power and engineering, business aviation, healthcare, and verticals such as strategic investments, and business incubation. Crescent Enterprises employs over 5,000 people in 22 countries across five continents. The company has over US$1.4 billion in total assets and over the last five years, has achieved a 57% compounded annual growth rate in revenues and executed projects and investments of US$1.65 billion.

Crescent Enterprises is a subsidiary of the Crescent Group, one of the family business groups actively contributing to the economies of the MENA Region for over 44 years. Crescent Group's other subsidiary, Crescent Petroleum, is the first and the largest indigenous, privately owned upstream oil and gas company in the Middle East.

Companies

Crescent Enterprises' group companies is balanced between infrastructure-related industries and other core sectors of the economy that includes Gulftainer Group, Momentum Logistics, Gama Aviation, Uruk Engineering & Contracting, Clinical Pathology Services, and Global Gumbo Group.

Gulftainer Group, established in 1976 in the UAE, is the world's largest privately owned, independent port management company, operating in nine countries across five continents and handling over 6 million TEUs. The company established the Sharjah Container Terminal at Port Khalid, the first container terminal in the Middle East and operates some of the most productive terminals in the world, including Khorfakkan Container Terminal. In 2014, Gulftainer became the first and only Middle Eastern port operator with a strategic presence in the Americas, with a 35-year concession at Florida's Port Canaveral in Florida. Gulftainer provides fully integrated and cost-effective supply chain solutions – from transportation and freight forwarding to warehousing and logistics cities through its wholly owned subsidiary, Momentum Logistics.

Uruk Engineering & Contracting specialises in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) with projects ranging from power, oil and gas, petrochemicals, waste water and infrastructure. The company has executed over US$ 800mn worth of projects in the Iraqi power sector since 2010, providing electricity to more than 100,000 homes. Uruk is the first EPC contractor to complete an Iraqi Ministry of Electricity Fast Track project, executing the 724 MW and US$ 540m power plant project in Al Mansuriya in partnership with Alstom.

Gama Aviation Plc is a London stock exchange (AIM)-listed global business aviation services provider, founded in 1983 in the United Kingdom. The company's operations focus on business aircraft charter, Fixed Base Operations (FBO), engineering, design and maintenance, aircraft valeting, and aviation software services. Gama Aviation manages a fleet of 146 aircraft and has a network of 44 operating locations in fifteen countries across five continents, with global headquarters located at Farnborough Airport in the UK, and regional headquarters in Connecticut, USA; Sharjah, UAE, and Hong Kong, Asia.

Clinical Pathology Services (CPS) is an independent reference medical laboratory for human clinical laboratory testing in the MENA Region. The clinic is the first fully CPA (UK) accredited private pathology practice outside of the European Union, and first UAE laboratory to achieve General Civil Aviation Authority accreditation for the purpose of carrying out drug and alcohol testing for the aviation industry. CPS has affiliation agreements with Guy's Hospital, King's College Hospital, and St. Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust in the United Kingdom.

Strategic investments

Crescent Investments manages the company's strategic investments, comprising holdings across alternative asset classes, including private equity, venture capital, real estate and other structured investments. Its portfolio includes: The Abraaj Group, Growthgate Capital, TVM Capital Healthcare Partners, Siraj Palestine Fund I, Wamda MENA Ventures Fund I, Duet-IBC MENA Real Estate Opportunities Fund, Hedosophia MENA and Samena Limestone Holdings, a consortium of investors who acquired over 30% of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Ceramics.

Business incubation

In 2014, in order to serve as an incubator and accelerator for start-ups across the Middle East, Crescent Enterprises launched CE-Ventures. In addition to developing new businesses, CE-Ventures works with group companies to transform ideas into viable projects that are socially conscious, environmentally friendly and financially sustainable.

Crescent Enterprises has supported numerous initiatives and campaigns to address key community matters ranging from social entrepreneurship and environment to arts and culture, and corporate governance.

Crescent Enterprises partnered with Ashoka in co-founding the Arab World Social Entrepreneurship Program (ASEP) in early 2016. This was aimed at identifying and scaling the work of local social innovators from the Gulf region by introducing existing local solutions to a global platform and bringing global innovations to the local markets. The company also partnered with the Cherie Blair Foundation and the Sharjah Tatweer Forum's Sharjah Leadership Programme, and is a founding supporter of Education For Employment (EFE).

Arts and culture

Through its entertainment subsidiary Global Gumbo Group (G3), Crescent Enterprises launched the charity single Tomorrow/Bokra in 2011 featuring 24 Middle Eastern artists, raising USD 3.5 million to support arts programs in disadvantaged schools across the Middle East. In 2014, G3 launched Bokra The Film, a feature-length documentary on the charity song. Crescent Enterprises launched the Middle East Theatre Academy's (META) initiative "Home Grown" in collaboration with the Kevin Spacey Foundation (KSF) In 2015, culminating in a performance of Dhow Under the Sun. Crescent Enterprises also supports the Sharjah International Children Film Festival, an annual event that raises cultural awareness and celebrates the region’s young talent in art and film making.

Corporate governance

Crescent Enterprises aims to provide a culture of governance, accountability and integrity in alignment with various global organisations advocating for transparency, compliance, and disclosure. The company is a founding partner of the Pearl Initiative, a member of the United Nations Global Compact, a signatory of the United Nations Women's Empowerment Principles Equality Means Business and a member of several World Economic Forum's (WEF) initiatives including the Partnering Against Corruption initiative, the WEF’s Global Challenge Partnership for Economic Growth and Social Inclusion, the MENA Regional Business Council, and the WEF’s Family Business Community.

Environment

Crescent Enterprises is a partner with the Emirates Wildlife Society in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF) and Green Abu Dhabi.

References

Crescent Enterprises Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Don Bonker

Márton Illés

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