Kuwait Financial Centre K.P.S.C “Markaz” announced the sale of Longley Commerce Center in Reno, Nevada. Launched in March 2018, the investment involves the acquisition and development of a greenfield land parcel into a 270,975 square foot Class A industrial property. Exceeding promised returns, Markaz continues to outperform with a weighted IRR of 17.6% across the current cycle further strengthening our track record.
The exit delivered a net internal rate of return to investors (IRR) of 17.9% percent and a net return on investment (ROI) of 49.3% percent. Despite the negative implications of COVID-19 across the various business sectors, both metrics comfortably exceeded initial estimates driven by strong market selection, excellent execution and a strengthened investment thesis.
Sami Shabshab, President of Mar-Gulf Management Inc., Markaz’s U.S. real estate arm, stated: “I would like to start by thanking our partners on the strong performance and look forward to build on the momentum we have established to further grow our business relationship. We believe that the current market conditions have and will continue to create selective exciting opportunities that we will capitalize on by leveraging the lasting partnerships we have built with leading operating partners, service provides and lending institutions over the past 30 years through our office in the USA. With a combined experience of over 100 years, the team looks forward to navigate the new market dynamics that the COVID-19 has created as we have done throughout the previous crises.
Shabshab added: “The sale of the property in Longley was in line with the initial investment strategy and was our fifth exit over the past couple twelve months. Our remaining international real estate portfolio across the USA and Europe is worth over USD 400 million and consists of eight active and three upcoming investments that have been fully sold to our investors.
Abdullatif Al-Nusif, Executive Vice President of Wealth Management and Business Development, reiterated the company’s commitment towards its real estate program in the USA and Europe He stated “We are very pleased with the results of our international real estate program and look forward to continue growing both in terms of size and geographical coverage. The investor appetite towards our program continues to grow and I would like to thank them for their continued trust and support. Our focus remains set towards offering the right mix of products that will enable us to create value to our investors, shareholders and stakeholders. To conclude, the COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt created uncertainty in the market due to the unprecedented nature of the event, however I would like to reiterate that this will create unique opportunities that we at Markaz are ready to capture”.
Markaz has been active in the US real estate market since 1977 with the launching of its first syndicated transaction. Since 1988, Markaz has been conducting real estate transactions in the US through Mar-Gulf, the US real estate arm and wholly-owned subsidiary of Markaz. Over the past thirty years, Markaz and Mar-Gulf have been involved in the ownership and development of real estate properties in a variety of segments including industrial, retail, multifamily and office across the U.S. with a total acquisition cost exceeding USD 1.65 billion.
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