Aldar Investment has acquired a 70 percent equity interest in Abu Dhabi Business Hub, valuing the company at more than AED500 million ($136 million), with the remaining 30 percent owned by a strategic partner.
The acquisition marks the creation of Aldar Logistics, the company’s new logistics real estate vertical, which will focus primarily on the UAE, potentially expanding into Saudi Arabia and Egypt, said an Aldar press release on Tuesday.
After completing the Abu Dhabi Business Hub transaction, Aldar Investment intends to assess further acquisition opportunities through the newly set up logistics vertical as it seeks to increase its allocation across the sector.
Abu Dhabi Business Hub is a developer and manager of real estate in Abu Dhabi and owns a strategically located warehousing, industrial, and office complex in Industrial City Abu Dhabi, which has a total net lettable area of around166,000 sqm.
It comprises three office buildings, 132,000 sqm of warehouses, and undeveloped industrial land plots for future expansion. The existing logistics facilities are over 90 percent occupied.
Jassem Busaibe, Chief Executive Officer of Aldar Investment, said, “We see strong potential for expansion in warehousing and logistics real estate in the region, a segment that has robust fundamentals driven by infrastructure development and growth of the digital economy.”
Aldar Investment is also responsible for Aldar Investment Properties (AIP), the region’s largest institutional-class real estate platform, which will now welcome logistics real estate as an asset class. AIP is rated Baa1 by Moody’s, the highest credit rating for a corporate non-government corporate in the region, said the press release.