Limitless builds $100b portfolio

Dubai: The project portfolio of Limitless currently under planning and development has exceeded $100 billion (Dh367 billion) with nine master-planned developments, a senior official said on Tuesday.

"However, within less than three years of operations, the value of our net assets crossed $30 billion," Paul Green, chief financial officer of Limitless told a conference on Tuesday.

This makes Limitless - a Dubai World company - which is constructing a Dh41 billion ($11 billion) Arabian Canal and a Dh48 billion Downtown Jebel Ali master-planned communities, one of the top developers in the UAE.

Its sister concern Nakheel - another Dubai World company that has arguably the largest land bank in Dubai - has a similar portfolio size. However, while Nakheel focuses on Dubai, Limitless is more into international markets.

"We have seven developments in some of our key strategic markets including India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Russia," he said.

"We are an internationally focused company and our vision is to be a leading global integrated real estate developer, preferably the top developer in the world across all market segments, delivering distinctive and sustainable developments."

Project life

He said most of his company's project life would be between three to 15 years, while some would be stretched to 20 to 25 years.

He was speaking at an Islamic Finance Conference organised by MEED. He said Limitless would seek Islamic instruments to fund some of these large projects. "Sub-prime has re-focused attention on Islamic lenders, typically less affected," Green said.

The sukuk advantage for Limitless, he said, is seen as an additional source of liquidity. "The sukuk market is expected to grow 35 per cent a year to be worth $200 billion by 2010," he said.

Limitless' funding requirements are split between corporate debt and project-specific debts.

He, however, did not specify on the size of its finance requirements. In order to manage the delivery of the projects, it is developing commercial and residential projects, which will give it the necessary cash to support construction activities, he said.