Dubai Investments backs Kent College campus deal
Dubai Investments led a consortium of investors to acquire Kent College Dubai campus through its subsidiary Al Mal Capital.
The company is an anchor investor in the sale-and-leaseback transaction through which the campus has been leased to the operator on a long-term basis to manage the institution, the company whose shares trade on Dubai Financial Market said yesterday.
Dubai Investments did not specify the financial details of the transaction, and said the acquisition is in line with its strategy to build a portfolio of income-generating real estate assets, especially in the education sector.
Al Mal Capital, which provides asset management and advisory services, structured the deal along with its co-investment partners.
“This is a landmark transaction. The focus is on building private equity and real estate investment activities in the coming years,” said Khalid bin Kalban, the managing director and chief executive of Dubai Investments. “This transaction allows Dubai Investments to build on its institutional presence in the real estate sector.”
Dubai Investments is the latest company to acquire income-generating real estate assets to maintain a healthy cash flow. Some alternative investment firms and the majority of the UAE developers are pushing to increase their annual recurring revenues to offset the impact of slower economic growth.
A number of real estate investment trusts have also been established in the past few years on similar strategies.
“We are committed to expand our assets under management and execute transactions with committed institutional partners in the income generating real estate space both regionally and internationally,” said Naser Nabulsi, the vice chairman and chief executive of Al Mal Capital. He added that Al Mal’s direct investments team is also working to align its investments with that of its clients to deliver yields and longterm capital gains.
Kent College Dubai is a K-12 British curriculum institution with a capacity to accommodate 2,200 students. It started operations last year and is spread over an area of more than 560,000 square feet.