IslamicFinance.de

Mishal Kanoo, deputy chairman of the Kanoo Group, believes that the big merchant families of the Gulf are the backbone of the regional economies, and that of the UAE. Most of them came into being around the time Gulf states won independence in the 1970s, so now they are in the third generation of ownership. This creates its own tensions. Part of the problem lies in the blurred distinction between ownership and management, he says. The other question is how to protect minority family members who do not wish to be involved in the management, but who have an economic stake in the running of the business.