sentences:  In 2006, Venture Capital Bank (VC Bank), a Bahrain-based investment bank, along with its partner, the U.S. private equity firm Global Emerging Markets (GEM), acquired a significant stake in Challenger.The acquisition cost roughly $50 million and was co-financed by VC Bank and GEM.This transaction demonstrated that the MENA region contains several attractive, yet obscured, investment opportunities represented in privately held companies such as Challenger.