Long-term, sustainable value creation

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Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, MBU is a privately owned investment firm focussed on natural resources, education, CBD, and real estate. Our strength lies in originating off-market investments in the UK, US, Africa, and Asia.

We are sector specialists, yet opportunistic and flexible in our investment approach. We remain agile and responsive to new opportunities.

Our investments

Bens Creek Group is an AIM listed company that owns and operates metallurgical coal mines in West Virginia, USA. Bens Creek supplies metallurgical coal to the global steel industry. The mine is set over 10,000 acres and has estimated metallurgical coal resources of 17.2 million in-place tons, with a potential of a further 30.9 million tons. Operational infrastructure includes a coal preparation plant and rail loadout facility with a nominal throughput of 500 tons per hour and a 3.2-mile rail spur connecting to the Norfolk Southern mainline.

Wakelet is revolutionising the way people find, organise and share information. In a world of algorithmically-driven content, Wakelet puts people first, helping them organise and find the most relevant, authoritative and compelling content from across the web. Millions of people across the world use Wakelet every day to curate web-based content, gather research, create digital portfolios, tell digital stories, distribute newsletters and more.

Pure Functionals is a pioneering wellness-lifestyle company that uses CBD and high-end technology to elevate everyday products. By merging science, data and expertise, Pure Functionals uses innovative ways to make therapeutic nature-based products and solutions more accessible to more people.

Carbon negative company utilising advanced nano materials to produce heavy duty coatings, paints, and additives with significantly enhanced physical properties e.g. stronger, anti-viral, fire-proof, super-insulating, super-hydrophobic and lighter.

UK-based exploration and development company focused on the development of a neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) project located in Longonjo, Angola. The company also has interest in the Coola Project, which has rare earth mineralization and is set over approximately 7,500 square kilometres.

Seed investor in a asset inspection and intelligent asset management software. Hybird automatically consolidates and optimises visual asset inspection data to streamline drone and robotic inspections, using the power of novel computer vision algorithms for automation.

Participated in the Seed and Series A funding round at Sheildpay. The company provides escrow, paying agent and third-party managed account services to leading law firms, lenders, market places, fintech and legaltech businesses.

A centralised platform for tourists to book tickets to the most popular attractions, activities and experiences in-destination. Instant confirmation, live availability and 100% mobile friendly. Leveraging the easy brand which already services over 100 million customers per year across the travel and tourism industry.

Change Agronomy is a vertically integrated sustainable industrial hemp business that combines world-class genetics with leading agronomic techniques and infrastructure to provide full-service industrial hemp products to multiple global end markets. The Company aims to become the leading sustainable low-cost producer of hemp products that utilise the whole plant.

Leadership Team

We are led by a highly experienced senior team with diverse approaches and backgrounds from private equity, private debt, investment banks and hedge funds.

Mohammed Iqbal

Founder & CEO
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Mohammed Iqbal

Founder & CEO

Mohammed Iqbal is an entrepreneur and established business owner with extensive experience of the financial services sector in the UK and internationally.

He started his career at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (“CIBC”), London, as a derivatives analyst building and implementing risk and pricing models for complex derivatives, then managing the proprietary trading function for index and equity structured products. In this role, Mohammed was responsible for over £1bn of notional risk and an annual P&L exceeding £100m.

Mohammed then joined CQS, a London-based start-up hedge fund as the Head of Risk Management. A small team managed an initial £100m of investor funds across fixed income and equity-based investment strategies. Mohammed quickly progressed to a portfolio management role and over the next 5 years, became Head of Credit, Equity and Structured Products,overseeing and participating in the growth of the fund from £100 million to more than £12 billion of assets under management, and from a small team to more than 300 employees. He was directly responsible for managing and overseeing more than £50 billion of leveraged investments globally, in multiple sectors and corporate structures and was responsible for an annual P&L exceeding £500 million.

Mohammed then moved to Kleinwort Benson, a UK-based private bank, where he set up a new fixed-income business across Europe and Asia. As the deputy head of fixed income, Mohammed was also involved in many other facets of the bank including treasury & risk management, wealth management, corporate finance and retail banking.

Throughout his financial career, Mohammed has interacted with regulators, investors, corporates, borrowers and lenders. He has raised, and managed funds as well as invested in and built businesses.

CIBC was an established investment bank, CQS was a start-up and Kleinwort Benson involved setting up a business within a newly established private bank. From investment banking to a hedge fund to a commercial bank – Mohammed has experienced the strengths and weaknesses of different types of financial institutions at varying stages of their evolution. With this knowledge and experience Mohammed left Kleinwort Benson to set up MBU Capital.

Mark Cooper

General Counsel
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Mark Cooper

General Counsel

Financial expert Mark brings a wealth of commercial,business, and legal experience to the MBU team. For nearly 20 years Mark has worked in senior legal roles in investment banking and fund management.

He began his career as a barrister in private practice before taking up in-house roles in financial services organisations. Prior to joining MBU, Mark was the General Counsel for a global investment bank with responsibility for all legal and regulatory aspects of the group’s operations throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He also served as a Board Director of multiple entities across the EMEA region, bringing expert advice in legal, compliance and regulatory matters to all aspects of the business.

At MBU, Mark is responsible for managing the legal affairs at a group wide level and dealing with issues in all areas of the company, including but not limited to corporate matters, acquisitions, investments and tax efficient structuring.

As well as advising the CEO and other senior corporate officers on a variety of issues, Mark participates in the formulation of general management policies as a member of the senior management team and also sits on the investment board committee.

Raju Haldankar

Group Finance Director
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Raju Haldankar

Group Finance Director

Raju Haldankar qualified as an accountant with Baker Tilly, now RSM, a leading firm of Chartered Accountants head quartered in London. During his time with the firm, he managed audit compliance teams ranging service industries to manufacturing companies, whose ownership structures included sole traders, Limited companies and AIM listed companies. He also gained a breadth of experience spanning corporate finance, forensic accounting and corporate recovery.

Raju has over 20 years ’experience in the financial services sector – all with UK regulated institutions, including those domiciled in Jersey and Guernsey. His entry point to the financial services sector was with Singer & Friedlander Plc, a FTSE listed merchant banking group, as an internal auditor to strengthen the operational and control framework of the group which had interests in stockbroking, investment management, retail banking and commercial banking. He then joined the investment management business of Singer & Friedlander Plc, as Assistant Director of Finance covering £8bn of funds under management in retail funds, discretionary portfolio management for high net worth individuals and private family funds, spanning onshore and off shore structures. During his time at this firm, he held the FCA controlled functions Finance, Investment Management, Systems and Controls and Significant Management.

Prior to joining MBU Capital, Raju was partner at a boutique broking firm which executed client buy-side and sell-side trades to the value of over £5bn p.a. for blue chip clients, using voice only execution services. He was responsible for the financial, compliance and money laundering functions of the firm, having held FCA controlled functions.

Muzaffar Iqbal

Director, MBU Investment Committee
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Muzaffar Iqbal

Director, MBU Investment Committee

Muzaffar is a robust and resilient operations leader with a hands-on approach who has made a quick and sustained impact to drive improved commercial performance for the overall group of the company. As a dedicated and ambitious individual with outstanding leadership credentials, Muzaffar is responsible for the overall smooth running of the various MBU business ventures.

Muzaffar started his career as a project manager for MBU Capital where he was responsible for managing the acquisition, and subsequently a sale, of a large education portfolio consisting of 46 schools and 2 universities. He was involved in all aspects of the education business from an operational perspective, from initial due diligence to operational planning.

He then became an investment manager for the firm, where he was responsible for managing MBU’s education investments overseas, as well as leading strategic planning for the Group’s various other business lines. He assumed the role of Director, MBU Investment Committee in January 2020.

Muzaffar holds a Bsc in Economics and Finance from the University of East Anglia.

Contact

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Contact Information
Where to Find Us

MBU Capital Group
8-10 Hill Street
Mayfair, London
W1J 5NG

Call Us At

Phone: +44 (0)20 3314 0368