Equitativa (Dubai), GCC’s largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) manager, is planning an investment of up to $54.4mn (AED200mn) in new real estate acquisitions for Emirates REIT by early 2020.

Equitativa, manager of Nasdaq-listed Emirates REIT – the world’s largest shariah-compliant REIT – made the announcement on the back of its first half results for 2019, which saw a rise of 9.1% in its net property income, compared to the same period in 2018.

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According to the announcement, there was an increase of 13.5% in EBITDA for the same period, despite challenging market conditions and a profit of more than AED 4mn for the period, despite market revaluation of real assets, breaking the trend in the sector. Emirates REIT’s fund expenses saw a decrease of 5%, improvements in receivables, and the occupancy rate remained stable at 75%, according to the first half financial results.

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Commenting on the developments, Sylvain Vieujot, CEO of Equitativa Dubai, said, “Our portfolio enjoys a stable occupancy due to our active management and the quality of the assets. We are now in an active acquisition mode and are considering a number of transactions that will boost Funds from Operations (FFO), which remained stable for the period.”