Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), a leading financial services company based in the UAE, has acquired a portfolio of warehouses situated in the logistic belt of Jebel Ali and Dubai Investment Park on behalf of its investors for Dh250 million ($68.05 million).

The portfolio consists of specialised and general warehousing assets leased out to leading global and regional logistic operators for long term leases with strong covenants, said a statement.

Mohammed Al Hassan, co-founder/chief executive officer, GII, said: “We are delighted as our company continues to grow and diversify its local investment portfolio in the UAE by venturing into the rapidly growing logistics sector by acquiring high quality warehousing assets.”

“We expect logistic sector to continue to grow at rapid pace on the back of stupendous growth in e-Commerce demand, besides the UAE government initiatives such as the Expo 2020 and port capacity expansions that will continue to drive the demand for logistics assets,” he said.

“Our logistic assets in Dubai have long term leases and an average return on invested capital of 10 per cent per annum, providing our investors with an attractive opportunity in a promising market,” he added.

Pankaj Gupta, co-founder/chief executive officer of UAE, added: “We are excited to have made our first investment in logistic real estate assets in UAE by investing into modern and specialised warehouse assets leased out to reputed logistic operators with very strong lease covenants.”

“It is a good fit for our investment strategy of providing high cash on cash returns to our investors,” he said.

“We believe logistic sector in UAE will continue to expand rapidly thereby ensuring high return on investment for the investors as well as offering better security and liquidity aspects of the investment,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service