Arif Naqvi and his Dubai-based Abraaj Group were pioneers of private sector impact investment in emerging markets. Impact investing was a simple idea: private money is invested to build resilient economies in places as diverse as Ghana, Mexico, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Kenya and the Middle East to improve healthcare, education, clean energy and access to consumer goods, while delivering returns for investors. The Abraaj Group (Abraaj means 'towers' in Arabic) had just shy of $14 billion under management by 2017; they were on the threshold of closing a new fund that would invest $6 billion into these emerging markets.
One of their most successful investments had been in Karachi Electric, the sale of which had been agreed to a Chinese energy giant, and a sizeable chunk of that new fund was going to come from Chinese investors. Then Donald Trump entered the White House, China became corporate enemy number one and the President's friends in private equity, who wanted a...