ARGUABLY one of the top City dealmakers, Malik Karim is also making his presence felt in the Conservative party, who in September 2021 became the first person of colour to serve as treasurer of the party.
He only served just over a year in the role, stepping down in November last year, saying “this particular inflection point for the party feels like the right time to step away from the day-to-day responsibilities.”
He has to navigate through a tumultuous period in Tory politics, which has seen three prime ministers in No. 10. Yet he made his mark with the first ‘Conservative Party City Dinner’ as he spearheaded the party’s attempts to raise funds in the Square Mile.
Karim is expected to continue play a major role in fundraising for the next general election, which would in all probability an uphill battle for the party, if the current poll trends continue.
On the business front, the year has been fruitful for him, as he reportedly netted £13.8 million in 2022 from his boutique investment bank Fenchurch Advisory Partners. Karim’s payout from his company was up 55 per cent in the year to March end after they worked on deals such as Abrdn’s £1.5 billion takeover of interactive investor, and the takeover of life insurer International Financial Group Limited by global private equity firm Cinven.
Last March, Fenchurch also announced its expansion across the pond, launching an office in New York, which Karim said as “a natural evolution for Fenchurch given our involvement in numerous significant transactions with an international component.”
“Many of the sub-sectors of financial services where we have built strong franchises in the UK and Europe are global, and a US office will add to our origination and execution capabilities,” he added.
And, as he stepped back from active political duties, he plans to concentrate more on Fenchurch’s expansion in the US.
Karim founded Fenchurch in 2004, and the company has since made a reputation by advising on some of the biggest deals in asset management and insurance. Specialising in the financial services sector, the firm has worked on some of the City’s largest deals in recent years, including the $1bn acquisition of tastytrade by IG Group in 2021 and Swiss Re’s £3.25bn sale of ReAssure to Phoneix Group in 2019.
In 2018, he sold a 51 per cent stake in Fenchurch to Natixis, a subsidiary of French banking group Groupe BPCE. But he continued as chief executive with Fenchurch functioning as an independently operated affiliate of Natixis.
Karim is justifiably proud about the growth of the firm in the last two decades.
“I have developed a world-class specialist investment banking business which is consistently ranked No.1 against global and independent investment banks,” he told the GG2Power List.
Commenting on his major achievements in the last 12 months, Karim added, “We have seen a record financial performance. Fenchurch is working on virtually all the most significant deals in the UK financial services sector.”
Their 2022 deals bore testimony to this. They include Phoenix Group’s £248m takeover of Sun Life UK, AXA’s sale of a closed life and pensions portfolio in Germany to Athora for €660m, the acquisition of Ascot Lloyd, one of UK’s leading financial advisers, from Oaktree by Nordic Capital, HPS Investment Partners taking a majority stake in Epiris’ portfolio company Nucleus, the acquisition of the Fluent Money Group by Mortgage Advice Bureau for around £73m, Cinven’s acquisition of International Financial Group Limited, and the sale of River and Mercantile LLC, the US solutions business of River and Mercantile Group plc to Agilis Holding Company for $8.6m.
And, they are going strong. They have started the New Year with the £242m takeover of the SIPP (self-invested personal pension) provider Curtis Banks Group by Nucleus Financial Platforms, announced on 6 January.
“I am privileged to lead a stable group of immensely talented bankers who have built Fenchurch with exceptional teamwork. The firm has developed an excellent reputation and is well positioned to continue to reinforce our unique position as the only specialist independent adviser dedicated to financial services with an industrial scale sector capability,” he said.
Karim, who turns 62 this year, came to the UK from Uganda, aged 12, fleeing Idi Amin’s persecution of Ugandan Asians. His father used to run a café there. After arriving in the UK, they spent the first year in refugee camps.
His family settled in Leicester, and he excelled in his studies, completing his bachelor’s and master’s in Economics at Manchester University. He then qualified as a chartered accountant with accountancy and consulting firm Arthur Andersen, and started career at the upmarket merchant bank Kleinwort’s merger and acquisitions team.
He was part of the M&A wave of the late 1980s and moved to DLJ, one of the first specialist M&A boutiques. But, the acquisition of DLJ by Credit Suisse in 2000 would see him getting marching orders.
But, this would become a turning point – “one of the two main things that have happened in my life not of my own choosing which have turned out really well,” he later commented, the other being the expulsion from Uganda – and he went on to set up Fenchurch.
Karim has two children, has a daughter and a son, with his wife Azmina who he met at an airport queue in 1994 and married a year later. Azmina also hails from an east African family, and like Karim, belongs to the Ismaili sect of Islam.
