SWICORP AND NESAJ ANNOUNCE SUCCESSFUL CLOSING OF “AL-DHAWAHI REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT FUND”

Swicorp – a leading Saudi investment banking, private equity and asset management firm focused on the MENA region and Turkey – announced the successful closing of a private placement subscriptions for the Al-Dhawahi Real Estate Development Fund after raising SAR 78.1 M in equity, along with structuring a SAR 68 M facility loan from a local bank.

The Al-Dhawahi Fund was established by Swicorp in partnership with Nesaj Development Company, a subsidiary of the Al-Fozan Group. Nesaj will develop and sell 133 mid-income villas in Dammam city, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Thus far, the skeleton construction phase has been completed with some villas beginning the finishing work. The fund is expected to return money to investors by the end of 2015 / beginning of 2016.

There was a strong interest from investors during the offering period resulting in the fund being oversubscribed and the equity was raised from institutional and individual investors.

Mr. Kais Mbarek, Head of Asset Management, said: “Swicorp is honored to take the role of Fund Manager for Al-Dhawahi and to contribute to the development of the real estate sector in the eastern region. We are confident that with our experience and expertise, we will be able to generate attractive returns for Fund investors in partnership with Nesaj Development Company and hope that this Fund will be the start of a long term mutually beneficial relationship between the two parties”.

He added “The Al-Dhawahi Fund is another important addition to the range of products and funds that Swicorp carefully selects to satisfy the varied demands of its clients and investors. It is the first in a series of real estate funds which we will be launching in the coming months. At Swicorp we are keen to bring together first class developers and attractive locations and projects, in order to structure and launch attractive and high-performing real estate development funds.”

Dr. Sameer Akbar, CEO of Nesaj Development Company, said: “We in Nesaj are looking forward to develop a high standard residential community to the middle income Saudi family. Al-Dawahi is going to be the project. Its urban pattern, architectural design of villas, and quality of the contacting and materials are all distinguished. Many customers are already contacting us to book what suites them from the variety of villas in Al- Dawahi. We are also exited with the partnership of Swicorp.”