RAK firm expects to double portfolio

Abu Dhabi: RAK Properties said on Tuesday it expected to double its real estate portfolio to $8.1 billion within five years as it expands overseas and will borrow this year to finance growth.

Chief executive Mohammad Sultan Al Qadi said the company, the third-largest property developer by market value on the Abu Dhabi exchange, planned to borrow as much as $1 billion by year-end as it moves into new markets.

"We are looking at different options and are talking with banks and our financial adviser," Al Qadi told Reuters on the sidelines of a property exhibition. He declined to give more details. "Projects under development are Dh15 billion ($4.09 billion) and by 2013 we will be doubling that because we are expanding into India, Georgia and Tanzania," he said.

Plans

The firm will acquire land for a range of mixed-use and residential projects with construction beginning in those countries next year, Al Qadi said.

"There is huge demand for property in those markets," Al Qadi said.

Set up as part of plans by Ras Al Khaimah in 2005 to help diversify the economy of the emirate, RAK Properties posted an 11-per cent rise in profit in the first quarter to Dh114.58 million.

Al Qadi told Reuters in October that the firm planned to sell up to $2 billion of Islamic bonds early this year.

Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (Rakia) in November sold $325 million worth of dollar-denominated bonds, while the RAK government in early May launched a $2 billion Islamic bond programme to help finance infrastructure.