Sorouh plans $1bn securitisation

by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Tuesday, 13 May 2008

FUNDING EXPANSION: Sorouh is planning to raise around $1 billion in asset backed securitisation this year, Haider said. (ITP Images)

Sorouh Real Estate, Abu Dhabi's second-biggest developer, will raise about $1 billion in an asset backed securitisation this year for general funding purposes, its CEO told ArabianBusiness.com on Tuesday.

“The initiative we have with Citibank is for close to $1 billion in an asset-backed securitisation," Mounir Haider said in an interview on the sidelines of Cityscape Abu Dhabi, declining to confirm when the securitisation will take place.

“I cannot time the market, it has to be the right time,” he said.

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State-controlled Sorouh last month saw first quarter net income surge to 361 million dirhams ($98.31 million), or 0.14 dirhams per share, from 114 million dirhams, or 0.04 dirhams per share, in the year-earlier period after selling land at its Shams residential and commercial project on the Abu Dhabi island of Reem.

RELATED: Abu Dhabi boom drives profits

The company recorded a 29% increase in full year profit to $343 million during 2007. The company’s development portfolio is valued at about $13 billion and it is expanding into new real estate markets throughout the Middle East.

Sorouh on Tuesday unveiled its masterplan for the multi-billion dollar Lulu Island project. An area of almost 1,400 acres located 500 metres offshore from the Abu Dhabi Corniche.