Plans to bring existing assets into fund and list on international exchange Arcapita also targeting logistics sector in Saudi Arabia and UAE RIYADH: Bahrain-based investment firm Arcapita Group Holdings is in the process of forming a $1.5 billion real estate investment fund, with most of its assets in Saudi Arabia. CEO Atif Ahmed Abdulmalik made the disclosure in an interview published by Asharq Business. “The Saudi market is very promising, and we have a real estate portfolio in the Kingdom that we started forming about a year and a half ago, with a value of more than $200 million, and we are currently working on buying additional real estate worth $500 million to maximize this portfolio,” he told Asharq Business. “We also have a portfolio of about $300 million in the UAE, and our goal is to place all these portfolios under the umbrella of a real estate investment fund and to present it to investors on an international stock exchange,” he said. Arcapita is also targeting the logistics sector in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Al Arabiya reported. Abdulmalik told the channel that the sector had become more attractive in the wake of the pandemic which has accelerated the growth of e-commerce worldwide. The company plans to open an office in Riyadh while its focus in the Kingdom would be on warehousing and logistics, he said. Abdulmalik also reiterated the appeal of the US market where it has long been an active investor. “We have selected a number of promising prospective investments that are expected to contribute significantly to increasing the volume of our assets under management in the American market,” he said. Arcapita, which has offices in Bahrain, Atlanta, London and Singapore, has over the past 24 years completed private equity deals in the US totaling more than $15 billion, according to the group’s website. Abdulmalik said Arcapita would continue to target direct investment in both the US and in the Gulf states.