GCC's largest REIT manager eyes $54m real estate deals by 2020

Equitativa (Dubai) Limited, the largest REIT manager in the GCC and manager of Emirates REIT, on Thursday said that it is looking to invest up to AED200 million ($54 million) in new real estate acquisitions by early next year.

The announcement comes at a time when the company announced its results for the first half of 2019, which revealed that Emirates REIT witnessed an increase of 9.1 percent in its net property income compared to the same period last year.

It also reported an increase of 13.5 percent in EBITDA for the same period, despite challenging market conditions.

Emirates REIT is the world’s largest Shari'a compliant Real Estate Investment Trust and is listed on Nasdaq Dubai.

Emirates REIT said it also recorded a profit of over AED4 million for the period, despite market revaluation of real assets, breaking the trend in the sector.

The first half of this year saw an overall improvement in the portfolio efficiency of Emirates REIT, including a decrease of 5 percent in fund expenses, improvement in receivables, and a stable occupancy rate of 75 percent.

Sylvain Vieujot, CEO of Equitativa Dubai, said: “Our portfolio enjoys a stable occupancy due to our active management and the quality of the assets. We are now in an active acquisition mode and are considering a number of transactions.

"We believe that this is an opportune time for acquisition of quality assets. Emirates REIT fund is well positioned to benefit from the attractive pricing of Grade A assets.”