Emaar negotiates major investment deals with Algeria

Algiers: Dubai-based Emaar Properties, the largest Arab real estate company by market value, is negotiating with Algeria investment deals worth $20 billion, an Algerian newspaper said yesterday.

Emaar Chairman Mohammad Ali Al Abbar held talks with Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem on Wednesday during a visit that followed a call by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for more Arab investment in Africa's second largest nation, the El Khabar daily reported.

"The visit aimed at completing the final details related to five huge real estate projects that Emaar is planning in Algeria, with a total cost exceeding $20 billion," El Khabar said, quoting "informed sources".

The newspaper said planned projects included luxury hotels, shopping malls, residential blocks, office towers and leisure sites in the capital Algiers and its coastline.

Emaar, which is also planning to set up a subsidiary in Algeria, aims at starting building its projects in the second half of 2007, the newspaper added.

Emaar, working on a series of property developments across the Arab world and South Asia, is 31.88 per cent owned by the government of Dubai.

Speaking at a conference of Arab businessmen on November 18, Bouteflika urged Arab companies to expand investment in his country, which is trying to lessen reliance on oil and gas.

The north African nation of 33 million people, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, benefiting from high oil prices, launched last year a $80 billion spending plan to boost growth and modernise infrastructure over five years.

Officials from both the Algiers government and Emaar were not immediately available for comment on the report.