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Seera in deal to develop UK housing units

MANAMA, May 24, 2015

Bahrain-based Seera Investment Bank has announced the successful completion of a new transaction in the UK Dementia Care sector.

The transaction comprises a Sharia-compliant equity investment in a dementia care focused housing development in London, UK, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

The development, the first of its kind, when completed will provide circa 115 housing units providing specialised care to dementia sufferers.

Seera chairman Hamad Al Ameeri said dementia is one of the key challenges facing the UK as the current options for those with dementia are limited and in many cases unsuitable.

"Dementia currently costs the UK tax payers around £23 billion ($35.6 billion) a year and this cost is expected to rise to £50 billion by 2040.

"The number of people in the UK currently living with dementia is estimated to be over 800,000, and this is forecast to double by 2050, an increase of 20,000 people on an annual basis.

"Surprisingly, there continues to be a lack of full service expertise and integrated care pathways. Therefore, we are really excited about this opportunity as this is a unique transaction addressing a critical social and healthcare need in the UK," he said.

“This transaction's aim is to not only fill an important gap in providing specialised dementia care but also to provide unique scalable investment opportunity for Seera and its strategic co-investors,” Ameeri added.

Seera chief executive Abdulla Janahi said Seera has partnered with Apache Capital Partners, UK and its operating partner with expertise in dementia care.

"The aim is to provide world class dementia care and to become the first truly integrated dementia care provider by creating a purpose-built community that provides medical, nursing and personal care and top-class housing for people at all stages of the condition on a single site.

"Apache Capital Partners and its operating joint venture partner have put together a world class operational management team which includes the UK's leading experts on dementia and dementia care."

Janahi said the project will be developed on a 1.19 acre freehold site in Clapham, London over a three to four-year period.

"The units are expected to be sold over the development period with distribution of substantially all the originally invested capital in the fourth year of investment together with a part of the profits.

"Upon completion of the development, the project will then be held to benefit from the ongoing care revenues. The project company is expected to be sold once steady state is reached in a year or two following return of initial investment to investors.

"The investment over the holding period is expected to generate very attractive risk adjusted returns for Seera and its investors," he said.

On how this deal fits with Seera's investment approach, he said "Seera's strategy is to invest in deals with strong fundamentals and in sectors which are not highly cyclical.

"We believe that given the low correlation of the dementia elderly care sector with economic cycles, the strong market fundamentals of the sector and the acute supply dynamics currently existing for this sector, this investment fits very well with this direction."

Seera has investments in the industrial manufacturing and transportation sectors in addition to smaller investments in the utilities and affordable housing sectors.

The bank's investment strategy is to maintain a diversified investment portfolio geographically and industry wise, focusing mainly on defensive sectors underpinned by strong fundamental demand, and to avoid speculation driven sectors.

"We are delighted to have successfully concluded this transaction with the strategic backing of Seera," Apache Capital Partners chief executive John Dunkerley.

"This transaction is part of our social infrastructure investment platform.

"This platform has proven returns of identifying investment opportunities underpinned by substantial macro fundamentals and aggregating institutional grade portfolios and strategies at an early stage of their cycle,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Bahrain | UK housing |

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