UAE – Mubasher: Equitativa (Dubai) Limited, the largest REIT manager in the GCC and manager of Emirates REIT (CEIC) Plc, on Thursday announced that it considers investing around AED 200 million in new real estate acquisitions in several sectors for Emirates REIT by early 2020.
The Nasdaq Dubai-listed company also reported a 9.1% year-on-year increase of in its net property income for the first half of 2019, according to a press release.
Moreover, the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 13.5% in H1-19 as compared to the year-ago period, despite challenging market conditions.
Sylvain Vieujot, CEO of Equitativa Dubai, commented: “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 that will boost Funds from Operations (FFO), which remained stable for the period.”
“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,” Vieujot added.
Emirates REIT, the world’s largest Shari'a compliant real estate investment trust, also logged a profit of over AED 4 million for the six-month period ended 30 June 2019.
The company’s portfolio efficiency has witnessed overall improvement during the first six months of the year, including a 5% decrease in fund expenses, improvement in receivables, and a stable occupancy rate of 75%.
“This positive performance comes at a time when a research by Knight Frank, titled ‘UAE Market Review and Forecast 2019’, expected that in the short and medium terms ‘market conditions in the UAE’s office sector will remain challenging with rental rates continuing to fall’,” the release highlighted.
