Aref Kooheji, former CEO of Dubai Islamic Bank Investment Banking Group, describes the genesis of BTU in an article titled: "Marrying capital with opportunities | ISLAMIC PRIVATE EQUITY | CPI Financial" (May 2006)

Background

Something incongruous in this article regarding the description of the role of the Dubai Islamic Bank in the creation of BTU.  The references made below to the "first fund" and "second fund" appear to be BTU Power and BTU Power II, respectively.  When read together with the post immediately following this one a rather murky picture emerges.

Note: Two things to keep in mind while reading the article immediately below; 1) the photograph in the article does not match other images of Mr. Kooheji found elsewhere in the internet, and 2) there are many references to Mr. Kooheji throughout the web before his departure from DIB - there are almost no references to Mr. Kooheji throughout the web after his departure from DIB - he drops off the radar.  

"Dubai Islamic Bank is no stranger to investment banking, having been one of the region's leading players for some time, Islamic or conventional, and has recently announced plans for a $5 billion family of private equity funds. AREF KOOHEJI, the CEO of the Investment Banking Group, spoke to Robin Wigglesworth about the opportunities of emerging markets."

Note: The reference to BTU is found in the 11th Question and Answer section of the interview. 

"No,  we started out with one private equity fund, BTU. A few years ago, as everyone knows, Enron went through a lot problems, and as a result a lot of large power companies started to sell some of their international exposure and focus on their home markets, whether they were US, Dutch or German.

As acquiring all these assets would be beyond any one company or bank, I thought we could establish a fund, where we could take up strategic stakes in these companies.

That first fund was very successful, so we raised a second fund and are now looking at a third fund. We now have around 21-24 power plants in our portfolio, and the next step, once we have raised the third fund, will be to merge all these into a company and take them public through an IPO"

 Link: Marrying capital with opportunities | ISLAMIC PRIVATE EQUITY | CPI Financial:


The following article dated November 27, 2007 states that:

"Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) announced that Aref A. Kooheji, Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Capital, the investment banking subsidiary of DIB Group, is stepping down from his position to pursue other opportunities."

Link: Aref Kooheji steps down as Chief Executive of Millenium Capital

Observations

Perhaps only some of the BTU "old timers" would know anything about this gentleman and what his role really was regarding BTU (and even DIB).  Based on the description of his position, he could conceivably have been he highest level DIB direct contact to BTU.

Going from a high-level, high-profile, position to "...stepping down from his position to pursue other opportunities." is an action that raises some questions.