Biography: O.D. Kobo

O.D. Kobo is an alternative asset manager with more than two decades of experience leading capital deployment, structured finance, and cross-border investments across institutional, sovereign, and principal-backed mandates, with a sectoral focus on technology, energy, and infrastructure.

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​Raised in Hong Kong and educated in London, he has spent his career structuring complex transactions in collaboration with sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), state-owned enterprises (SOEs), institutional investors, and private capital groups across Europe, Russia, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and Asia. He has held full-cycle responsibility for investment strategy, syndication, and governance across multi-jurisdictional vehicles.

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Mr. Kobo leads transactions in asset-backed finance, structured equity, and credit, operating in both regulated and emerging markets—often within jurisdictions requiring both legal and political structuring.

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From 2003 to 2010, he led the Qatar Investment Authority’s (QIA) direct investments in China, managing capital allocations during a pivotal period of Gulf-to-Asia deployment. In this role, he worked directly with His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, then Prime Minister of Qatar and Chairman of QIA. From 2007 to 2018, he served as General Partner of PIR Equities, a firm he co-founded and managed, overseeing approximately $1.8 billion in assets. Transactions included the $680 million sale of Camden Market Holdings (2014) and a series of energy-linked infrastructure projects between Africa, Russia, and the GCC (2008–2014), including a direct partnership with Roman Abramovich (pre-sanctions) in the Middle East (2012–2015).

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Between 2020 and 2023, he co-led the structuring and syndication of a multibillion-dollar capital and development program for a data and infrastructure platform in North Africa. Executed with PRC-backed SOEs and African ministries, he oversaw capital formation, phased deployment, and concession structuring.

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Earlier ventures included the formation and sale of operating companies later acquired by América Móvil, Lenovo, Tencent, NetEase, MetLife, and Yahoo. He has held controlling interests in diversified private vehicles and has been cited in finance and wealth publications for his private market activity.

 

Mr. Kobo studied Business at Regent’s Business School London and Finance at the London School of Economics, before returning to Hong Kong and Beijing in 1999 to begin his early investment activity.