Gulf Capital’s CWB Merges With PETOŠEVIĆ, A Leading East-European Intellectual Property Services Provider, To Create A Super-Regional IP Leader Operating Across 52 Countries

Gulf Capital (“GC”), one of the largest and most active private equity firms investing from the GCC to Southeast Asia, announced today that its portfolio company, the CWB Group (“CWB”), has merged with the PETOŠEVIĆ Group (“PETOŠEVIĆ”) to form an unrivalled super-regional firm servicing and managing the intellectual property (“IP”) portfolios of global clients across the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. From its 24 offices, the combined full-service firm will be in the unique position of having the capacity to provide its clients with the full suite of IP services across the 52 countries it focuses on.

Founded in the 1960s, PETOŠEVIĆ is a leading intellectual property services provider headquartered in Luxembourg, providing services primarily across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. PETOŠEVIĆ’s management team has a wealth of IP-focused experience and is one of the most established IP service providers in the region. This combination was predominantly driven by the close match in culture and values between CWB and PETOŠEVIĆ along with the combined vision of the founding management teams to create a truly unique IP firm, unrivalled in its geographical coverage, depth, and quality of service.

This latest transaction, initiated and led by Gulf Capital, is another example of Gulf Capital’s deep sector expertise, strong focus on operational improvements, and long track record of building global leaders through a mix of organic growth and strategic mergers and acquisitions. Since its acquisition of a majority stake in CWB in 2020, Gulf Capital has worked closely with the management team to enhance its customer-centric ethos to better serve clients through technology, senior human capital, and best practices. CWB’s merger with PETOŠEVIĆ aims to provide clients with a unique and unparalleled value proposition underpinned by trust, local expertise, and quality of service across an unprecedented wide network of 52 countries.

Slobodan Petošević, founder of PETOŠEVIĆ Group, said: “This marks a major milestone for us at PETOŠEVIĆ after more than 60 years in IP, and last 30 developing a focused network of IP firms. As a unique, multi-regional specialised IP firm, we are confident to offer our clients an enhanced and seamless service experience for all their intellectual property needs across the 52 countries we cover. The partnership with CWB and Gulf Capital was born out of a common vision for the future, and we are excited for the opportunities that lie ahead for our innovative creation and our respective clients.”

Halim Shehadeh, the Chief Executive Officer and founder of the CWB Group, said: “We are thrilled with the successful completion of the PETOŠEVIĆ merger and are eager to start this journey as a combined firm. This merger will deliver the resources we require to invest in new technologies, grow our operations and transform the way we deliver our services. It will enable us to build an unrivalled IP firm, with local presence and expertise in complex regions that operates as a single unit to deliver a consistent level of quality service despite all the challenges posed by the jurisdictions we operate in. Our clients are going to benefit from having one relationship and one point of contact for all their IP needs across all the 52 countries that we cover”.

Mohammad Madani, Managing Director, Gulf Capital, concluded: “We are very proud to partner with two pillars of the IP industry in Halim and Slobodan as we embark on this journey of transforming IP services across our growth markets. This strategic merger of two industry leaders is a continuation of our long-established strategy of ‘buy-and-build’ and industry consolidation to develop global champions out of the GCC region. We look forward to the smooth integration of the two firms and to generating substantial synergies and economies of scale in the future. Finally, we are particularly proud to establish this new super-regional IP firm out of the vibrant Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM), which is quickly becoming the jurisdiction of choice for fast growing global companies operating across Emerging Markets.”