Dubai Investments (DI), the diversified Gulf-based investment group, plans to invest more than Dh10 billion ($2.72 billion) into the UAE real estate market, said a top official.

Announcing its future plans, CEO Khalid Bin Kalban said the company will examine several expansion opportunities in 2015 with a key focus on the property sector.

It aims to enter new fields in its three main sectors - real estate, which boasts 65 per cent of the company's total investments, industrial service (which accounts for 20 per cent of investment) and financial services (15 per cent), he stated.

Kalban said DI will focus primarily on industries that finance the construction sector, such as building materials, aluminium, and glass.

This stems from the idea that the construction sector is the driving force of economic growth in the UAE, he added.

Kalban said the company was planning to invest Dh3.65 billion ($994 million) in the UAE’s local real estate market during 2015 through four new projects.

DI is also studying several other projects worth Dh6.35 billion ($1.72 billion) in Dubai Investment Park, where Dubai Investments Real Estate Company, a DI subsidiary, will develop a new project in Mirdif, Dubai, at a cost of Dh2.5 billion ($681 million).

On its other plans, Kalban said the company was currently at an advanced stage of negotiations to acquire 51 per cent of two companies, one of which operates in real estate investment.-TradeArabia News Service