Aldar Properties is spinning off its recurring-revenue assets worth 20 billion dirhams ($5.4 billion) into a new, fully-owned subsidiary as it seeks to achieve operational efficiencies and raise cheaper capital.
"It's another extremely exciting day in the Aldar story, we're launching Aldar Investments, the region's largest and most diversified investment company," Aldar Properties Chief Executive Talal Al Dhiyebi said.
"A lot of people still look at Aldar as a development company but today we're much more balanced, 50 percent of our income comes from the development business — that's the typical home-builder and 'build to sell' developer — and then on the asset management side we have quite a diverse portfolio of assets," he said.
Explaining the rationale for the move, Al Dhiyebi said the company thought it "was the right time to optimize our capital structure and unlock capital." He added that Aldar Investments had been assigned a "Baa1" rating by Moody's ratings, the region's highest non-government corporate credit rating, which means that Aldar Investments can raise capital, independently of Aldar.
Chairman of Aldar Properties Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak said in a statement that the launch of Aldar Investments allowed investors access to the UAE's economy.
"As the owner of $5.4 billion of prime real estate assets, Aldar Investments provides an opportunity for investors to benefit from Abu Dhabi's AA-rated economy — the strongest in the MENA region and from the government's commitment to growth and investment through the Abu Dhabi 2030 Plan."
