Colony Capital

Roughly $8 billion have been transferred from the Middle East and North Africa into the care of Tom Barrack, the founder and chief executive of real estate private equity firm Colony Capital. Grandson of Lebanese immigrants to Los Angeles, Barrack founded the company in the City of Angels in 1991 and now manages $25 billion of assets. Colony is the fourth-largest real estate private equity (PE) firm in the world.  To lure investors’ capital, 25 percent of which comes from the MENA region, Colony is diversifying its investment strategy as it adds distressed debt and media investments to its abundance of real estate projects.  Since 2008, Colony has been acquiring distressed loans from, among others, the United States’ Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which has been buying out failed banks and selling their assets. Colony holds about $7.5 billion in distressed debt. Another $5 billion are deployed in hospitality projects and