Addax BSC (c)

Founder and CEO Waleed Al Rashdan leads all investment decisions at Addax BSC (c). The firm maintains a partner-led structure with no external investment committee, meaning Al Rashdan and senior partners approve each transaction directly. This flat architecture, typical of Bahraini boutique investment banks, avoids the layered approval processes of larger wholesale banks.

Addax is licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain as an investment bank, which permits both proprietary principal investing and the structuring of co-investment vehicles for third-party capital. Unlike free-zone fund administrators, Addax operates under Bahrain's onshore regulatory framework, which subjects its balance sheet to capital-adequacy requirements but also allows it to offer Sharia-compliant instruments directly to Gulf family offices without routing through an offshore SPV stack.

Addax uses a hybrid model: it commits its own balance-sheet capital to every deal as principal, then structures co-investment vehicles for Gulf family offices and institutional partners who want side-by-side exposure. The firm does not run an open-ended fund complex but assembles deal-by-deal special-purpose vehicles. This structure ensures Addax has its own capital at risk on every transaction.

Addax concentrates on real estate, private credit, private equity, and infrastructure, with a geographic focus on GCC markets — primarily Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The real-estate strategy favors income-producing commercial assets, while the credit book targets bilateral and club-deal structures for mid-market borrowers underserved by conventional Gulf banks. Equity and infrastructure exposure is opportunistic and transaction-driven rather than fund-driven.

Yes. Addax integrates Sharia-compliant structuring into transaction-level documentation, using Wakala agency agreements and Murabaha cost-plus-financing frameworks. These are applied to both the direct balance-sheet book and co-investment vehicles offered to Gulf-based single-family offices and Islamic institutional allocators who require documented compliance with Sharia investment standards.

Addax operates as a principal investor that happens to hold an investment-bank license, rather than a fee-driven intermediary. Its balance sheet sits alongside third-party capital on every deal — an alignment mechanism many independent Gulf fund managers do not replicate. Additionally, its lean, partner-led structure avoids the legacy portfolio constraints and committee-driven timelines of larger Bahraini wholesale banks, enabling faster bilateral execution.