Abu Dhabi’s Manazel set for IPO

 

  

Abu Dhabi-based real estate developer Manazel Real Estate will soon list on local stock markets. It is currently engaged in procedures that will allow it to meet the requirements for issuing an IPO, the company’s chairman said.

 

In an exclusive statement to Emirates Business, Mohammed Muhana Al Qubaisi, Chairman of MRE, said his company is close to finalising the budget for two successive years, which is required by law for an initial public offering. The company has also engaged a firm specialising in records management to electronically organise its shareholders’ information.

 

The developer will apply to the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) later this year to be listed on the local stock exchanges. Al Qubaisi said he expected Manazel Real Estate’s shares to climb into the premium bracket soon after the IPO, if the firm’s future plans were anything to go by and if its financial results were as expected.

 

He said Manazel Real Estate is due to announce a strategic alliance with a group of major national investment companies to carry out large real estate ventures in the UAE – a step that will have a positive impact on the company’s financial results and share value in the future. Under the proposed alliance, the partners will provide land in upscale locations in Abu Dhabi and Manazel Real Estate will develop projects according to the most modern specifications.

 

It is expected that the alliances will consolidate Manazel’s position in the real estate market not just at the national level but also regionally, said Al Qubaisi.

 

He also expected Manazel Real Estate to post record profits when the results for the financial year 2007 are declared, even though it is a new company.

 

The past year was an exceptional one for Manazel Real Estate, Al Qubaisi said, whether in terms of the size and quality of the projects it executed or the novelty of the ideas and plans drawn up to be implemented in the near future.

 

Initial estimates indicate Manazel’s total sales in 2007 crossed Dh5 billion with a profit of nearly Dh1bn, he said. Most projects executed by the company in 2007 recorded 100 per cent sales, he added.

 

In the Cityscape Dubai 2007 property show, Manazel Real Estate’s sales on the first day itself exceeded Dh2.5bn, Al Qubaisi said, and added that this was proof the company was outdoing many established players in the sector.

 

He said in a first-of its-kind five-year-plan announced by Manazel Real Estate at the beginning of 2008, the company aims to construct 50,000 residential units at an investment of more than Dh40bn in various real estate projects in the UAE and six other Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia and Morocco.

 

The UAE’s share of Manazel Real Estate’s total projects will be 48 per cent.

The Amman Garden project in Jordan is the first of Manazel Real Estate’s projects outside the country. The Dh1.5bn project contains 1,700 residential units and covers an area of 500,000 square metres.

 

Another foreign project, Tunisia Gate, has 7,000 residential units and incorporates a marina for 1,500 boats and a golf course.

 

The project’s total investment is expected to be Dh5bn. Both projects are set to start in the first quarter of 2008, said Al Qubaisi.