Dubai's Zabeel cautious on foreign expansion

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Zabeel Capital, a unit of the investment firm, has a 3.6 billion dirham ($980.1mn) portfolio. (Getty Images)

Dubai's Zabeel Investments, an investor in Sony and planemaker EADS, said it will act cautiously on developing its portfolio outside the UAE in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis.

"From a UAE perspective, we are moving ahead as planned; however outside our borders we are taking our time to consider the opportunities available, and ensuring that we don't take on overvalued prospects," Mohammed Ali al-Hashimi, the company's executive chairman, said in a statement on Saturday.

Zabeel Capital, a unit of the investment firm, will continue to look at local and international opportunities in line with its 2008 strategy and building on its existing 3.6 billion dirham ($980.1 million) portfolio, he said.

"We looked at a number of opportunities during 2008, however with the anticipated shift in the markets, we could see that we would get better value for our money if we were to wait."

Zabeel Properties, the group's property arm, will deliver two developments in 2009 in Dubai.

"From the outset, we were determined to keep our 18 billion dirham property portfolio focused on Dubai and on the high end luxury segment, which has proved a prudent one," Hashimi said. (Reuters)

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