Friday 29 March 2024
 
»
 
»
Story

Arcapita plans more exits; sees 2011 profit

Dubai, June 19, 2011

Bahrain-based investment firm Arcapita plans to exit two more of its investments in the next six months and will use funds for part repayment of a $1.1 billion loan maturing in April, its chief executive said on Sunday.

The Islamic firm will exit one investment each in the Europe and the United States, CEO Atif Abdulmalik said in an interview without specifying what assets it wants to dispose.

Arcapita, with about $7.7 billion in funds under management, raised $435 million from its investment in property firm Mapletree Industrial Trust last year and sold a portfolio of senior living communities in the U.S. for $630 million in early 2011.

"We have done over $1 billion worth of exits in the last year and expect to complete two more large ones in the next six months. One is in Europe and the other exit will be in the U.S.," Abdulmalik said.

Like most investment firms in the region, Arcapita was hit by the financial crisis as it struggled to exit its investments due to global investor woes and its fee income from raising fresh funds in the Gulf Arab region collapsed.

It needs to refinance a $1.1 billion murabaha loan due in April 2012, on which German lender WestLB, Barclays and Standard Chartered were bookrunners.

Abdulmalik said the firm is in advanced negotiations with the lenders to refinance a portion of the deal and repay the rest from funds raised partly from sale of investment assets.

"We aim to reach a conclusion on the loan refinancing with banks by September or October," he said.

Early this year banks were selling Arcapita's syndicated loans at distressed levels in the secondary market signalling they were not expecting a full repayment of the loan.

The loans last traded at 89 cents to the dollar, one Dubai-based debt trader said.

"The markets have confidence in our ability to address the loan maturity," said Abdulmalik.

Arcapita also set plans to raise funds through a rights issue to institutional investors in the Gulf region.

The company expects to raise about $250 million from the rights sale, according to the chief executive.

After posting a loss of about $560 million for 2010, Arcapita expects to swing to a net income of $50 million when it posts results for the year-ended June 30, 2011. – Reuters




Tags: Bahrain | Dubai | investment | profit | Arcapita | 2011 | exits |

More Finance & Capital Market Stories

calendarCalendar of Events

Ads