Business | Property
Aldar Properties plans real estate investment funds
Abu Dhabi's largest property developer plans to launch four real estate investment funds that will provide exposure to the emirate's booming property market.
- By Andrew England, Financial Times
- Published: 00:44 April 4, 2008
Riyadh: Abu Dhabi's largest property developer plans to launch four real estate investment funds that will provide exposure to the emirate's booming property market.
Ronald Barrott, chief executive officer of Aldar Properties, said that the funds - one for each of retail, office, residential and hotel property - would launch next year. The aim is to expand the funds to become, eventually, multibillion-dollar vehicles.
The funds would be a first for Aldar and the UAE, he said.
The company, which has about 25 per cent of its shares owned directly or indirectly by the government with the remaining shares floated on the Abu Dhabi Securities Market, has a development portfolio of about $65 billion, a land bank of 35 million square metres and is responsible for at least a third of Abu Dhabi's development.
Final details
The final details have still to be worked out, but Aldar would manage the funds and hold a percentage of the shares - the amount still has to be decided - with the remainder open to foreign and domestic investors, Barrott said.
"The fund may also have the opportunity when they mature to float them off into the securities market," he said.
He said the funds were part of the group's "robust business plan".
"The rationale is obviously to enable us to . . . manage the assets and make sure they achieve the potential growth we believe is there . . . and build our funds management business," Barrott said.
"And to make available asset class specific funds to the investment market."
Abu Dhabi is by far the UAE's richest emirate and is home to 95 per cent of its hydrocarbons resources.
Like Dubai, the emirate is currently going through an extraordinary boom as it seeks to develop and diversify its economy and raise its profile.
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