Abu Dhabi : Waha Capital, the Abu Dhabi-based investment company, yesterday got shareholder approval for a Dh1 billion ($272.5 million) convertible bond or sukuk issue that will give current Waha shareholders right of subscription and be used to fund the firm's flagship real-estate project.
"The issue will give priority to existing shareholders, but in the case shareholders don't subscribe there are other strategic investors present for subscription," Waha's chairman, Hussain Al Nowais, told shareholders at an extraordinary meeting. Waha expects to issue Dh400 million of the bonds or sukuk in July this year, Dh300 million in July 2011, and Dh300 million at a later stage, Al Nowais said.
The conversion price for the bonds is yet to be determined, he said.
Waha, which has the Abu Dhabi government's Mubadala Development Co. as its major shareholder, will use the issue to help fund the flagship Al Markaz project being developed by its real-estate arm, Waha Land, and "to expand our investment portfolio," Al Nowais said.
Al Markaz is building a six square-kilometre, mixed-use development in Abu Dhabi that at a cost of Dh4 billion in the first phase.
