Alpha Dhabi Holding bought a 12.21 per cent stake in Aldar Properties from Mubadala Investment Company for Dh3.5 billion ($953 million).
The company made the acquisition through its subsidiary, Sublime Commercial Investment, Mubadala said on Wednesday.
Alpha Dhabi Holding is an Abu Dhabi investment company with a diversified portfolio of listed and unlisted equities in local and regional markets.
Mubadala will retain a 25 per cent stake to remain Aldar’s largest shareholder and a long-term, strategic investor.
It said it supports Aldar’s growth as a "national real estate champion" with the highest market value in the property sector, in addition to its role as a key driver of the emirate's economic diversification.
The transaction, which involved the transfer of 960 million shares in a block trade, “is one of the largest private share purchases in a UAE-listed company and was carried out by International Securities and ADCB Securities”, Mubadala said.
Aldar's shares were purchased at Dh3.67 per share, which was the price they closed at last Thursday.
The share price has more than doubled over the past 12 months and is up 19 per cent since the year began.
Aldar Properties, the UAE’s biggest listed developer, currently has a market capitalisation of Dh29.2bn.
Its fourth-quarter net profit rose by 28 per cent to Dh729m while revenue grew by 19 per cent to Dh2.53bn. However, full-year profit fell by 2 per cent to Dh1.93bn as direct costs, provisions, impairments and write-downs increased.
“Institutional investor interest in Aldar reflects confidence in the Abu Dhabi real estate sector and Aldar’s central role in implementing the emirate’s economic diversification strategy,” said Mubadala.
Aldar also revamped its business model earlier this year and now has a group operating structure managing its core development and investment businesses.
Aldar Development is responsible for building out the company’s 7,500-hectare land bank and oversees Aldar Projects, Aldar Ventures and Aldar Egypt subsidiaries.
Aldar Investment is responsible for managing its Dh16bn portfolio of recurring income assets, including its retail, residential and commercial assets under a subsidiary known as Aldar Estates. It also manages the company’s education and hospitality businesses.
The Abu Dhabi developer has completed a number of transactions, including an agreement with state-owned ADQ to manage projects worth more than Dh30bn in the capital.
It also sold the Abu Dhabi Golf Club Complex and the Westin Hotel to an unnamed buyer for Dh180m, as well as two district cooling units to Tabreed for a total value of Dh963m.
The company also aims to expand in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country and is looking to buy a stake in Sixth of October for Development and Investment Company, it said earlier this month.
Mubadala, which manages more than $232bn in assets, invests on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government across a range of sectors. Its international investments include stakes in Softbank’s Vision Fund, Reliance Retail Ventures, Austria’s oil and gas entity OMV and petrochemicals companies Borealis and Nova Chemicals.
The company signed a new deal to buy a stake in German ophthalmic lens manufacturer Rodenstock Group, further expanding its life sciences and health care investment portfolio.
It also plans to invest £800m ($1.1bn) in the UK's life sciences sector over the next five years.
Mubadala bought a refinery and logistics assets from Brazil's state oil company Petrobras for $1.65 billion this month, continuing to invest in traditional sectors such as energy.
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Kerala Knights 103-7 (10 ov)
Parnell 59 not out; Tambe 5-15
Sindhis 104-1 (7.4 ov)
Watson 50 not out, Devcich 49
The five pillars of Islam
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Australia
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
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