INVESTMENT BANKING ADVISORY
Built for consequential decisions.
M&A | Capital Advisory | Corporate Finance | Special Situations
Independent, execution-minded advice for owners, boards, management teams and investors navigating consequential transactions across the UAE, MENA and Europe.
In short
Independent, execution-minded advice for owners, boards, management teams and investors navigating consequential transactions across the UAE, MENA and Europe.
Practice
Investment banking practice
A focused advisory platform spanning transactions, capital decisions and special situations.
M&A Advisory
Buy-side and sell-side strategy, target or buyer origination, valuation, process management, negotiation, diligence and closing support.
Capital Advisory
Capital strategy, debt and equity options, financing preparation, investor-readiness and transaction coordination.
Corporate Finance
Valuation, capital structure, strategic alternatives, shareholder decision support and transaction modelling.
Private Capital Advisory
Private equity, family office and strategic-investor pathways, including transaction positioning and engagement support.
Restructuring & Special Situations
Refinancing options, recapitalisation, asset sales, creditor situations and distressed transaction support.
Strategic & Board Advisory
Acquisition strategy, portfolio review, ownership transitions, transaction readiness and independent decision support.
Regulatory note: Keel Partners provides strategic and corporate finance advisory services. Activities requiring specific regulatory authorisation are undertaken only where permitted and, where appropriate, with licensed counterparties.
Outcomes
And when the work has to get done
Advisory is the consulting practice underneath both. Five advisory lanes, fixed-scope entry points, and a partner who stays on the file.
Why a boutique
The stance
Large firms sell you a team you will never meet. Setup agencies sell you a licence and disappear. In between sits the work that actually decides whether a business grows: the sequencing, the pricing, the first ten hires, the operating cadence, the deal you should walk away from.
Keel Partners is built for that middle. A partner takes the mandate and stays on it. The judgement you are buying is the judgement that shows up.
The same applies across the corridor. Most firms on this route pick a side — a Gulf firm that will introduce you to someone in India, or an Indian firm with a Dubai address. Pratap Chandra carries Gulf mandates from Dubai and Anup Ranjan carries the India side: sourcing, supply chain and execution on the ground. Neither is a referral to the other.
Operator first, adviser second
Every recommendation has to survive the question “who does this on Monday, and with what budget?” We have run the P&Ls we advise on.
Transparency beats hidden costs
Fees, assumptions and conflicts are on the table before the work starts. Custom reporting and governance are part of the engagement, not an upsell.
We return money we should not have taken
At RedDot Life we returned a client cheque within three months when the risk turned out to be wrong for them. That instinct is the firm.
Long-term partnership over the transaction
We would rather hold one client for five years than win five for one quarter. Referral is the only distribution a boutique really has.
Credibility
What sits behind the room
No client logos, no testimonials and no numbers we cannot source. What we can tell you is who does the work and what they have run.
Discipline
What we say no to
A boutique is defined by its refusals. Ours are published, so you can disqualify us in ninety seconds instead of three meetings.
Work we cannot staff with a partner
If neither Pratap nor a named associate is on the file every week, we do not take it. There is no junior pyramid to hide behind.
Regulated activity we are not licensed for
Insurance intermediation, TPA administration and real-estate brokerage are licensed activities in the UAE. We advise the employer or the buyer; the licensed party does the licensed work.
Deep tech, pure tech and AI ventures
We are operators in traditional and services businesses. Frontier technology is somebody else’s edge, not ours.
Research
We publish the numbers, and the gaps
The work after the deck.
Twice a year we publish original research with every figure sourced and dated — and a list of what we could not verify. The second list is the one that tells you whether to trust the first.
Forecast 2026 medical cost trend — three surveys, one region
A four-point spread on the number most UAE benefit budgets are built from.
- Middle East forecast
- Global forecast
Aon, Mercer Marsh Benefits and WTW 2026 medical trend surveys. Full working in the UAE Employee Medical Cost Index.
Insights
Recent thinking
Who owns the bottleneck
Decision rights, cycle time, and three published cases where authority — not capacity — was the constraint.
The UAE growth story is changing
Five published numbers on a market where growth now hides inefficiency rather than removing it.
UAE Employee Medical Cost Index 2026
Three published forecasts, four percentage points apart, none of them UAE-specific — and what an employer can do about it.
Access
A room where operators bring the real numbers
Most executive networks sell a seat facing a stage. This one is built around a table. The value is the other operators agreeing to open their numbers because you opened yours.
Membership is small, mixed and deliberately chosen — a founder scaling past a hundred people, the regional MD of a European group, a family-business principal professionalising a second generation. What they share is a P&L they own.
- A standing confidentiality rule, signed before the first session
- Real figures on the table — not case studies, not anonymised composites
- No vendors selling into the room, ever
- A partner in the room to chair, not to pitch
- Places limited and reviewed annually
Proof
Corporate problems, founder solutions
We start with a challenge that has a named owner and a budget, then go and find the founders who have already solved it. Five gates, each one able to stop the programme — and the money with it.
Scouting Sprint
Who in the market can already solve your named problem. Screened shortlist, written assessment.
AED 120,000Innovation Challenge
Problem definition with the owning executive, open scouting, a working round, a selection gate.
AED 180,000Pilot / POC
The winner runs a scoped pilot inside your business, terms agreed before day one.
AED 75,000 – 100,000Access Retainer
Quarterly scouting cycles and first look at challenge winners across the portfolio.
AED 240,000 / yearNext step
Three ways in
Each path starts a different conversation. Whichever you pick, the first thirty minutes cost nothing and there is no deck.
Executive Circle
A closed room of Gulf operators who compare real numbers, by invitation and annual cadence.
Explore Executive Circle →ProofVenture Labs
Corporate challenges matched to founders, run to a gate. Founders pay nothing.
Explore Venture Labs →OutcomesAdvisory
Fixed-scope management consulting for operators who need the work after the deck.
Explore Advisory →Next step
Ask for a seat at the table
Tell us what you run and the one number you are trying to move this year. If the room is right for you we will say so, and if it is not we will say that too.