Posted - 04 Nov 2008 10:37 GMT
updated - 04 Nov 2008 10:40 GMT
Shuaa, Amwal, QInvest close $200m mezzanine fund
The fund is the GCC region’s first sharia-compliant mezzanine vehicle and will provide financing to a mixed-used development in Qatar.
Financial investment company Shuaa Capital, Qatar investment bank Amwal and Qatar-based Islamic investment bank QInvest, have closed Mezzanine Investment Partners II on QAR 728 million ($200 million; €156 million).
The fund is the first sharia-compliant mezzanine vehicle in the GCC region with an expected IRR of more than 15 percent, according to a statement from Amwal. It will provide financing to Al Waab City, a private mixed-used development in Qatar.
Al Waab City is a low density development in Qatar. The majority of the project is expected to be completed in 2010.
In August, Shuaa Capital Saudi Arabia Partners, a partnership between Shuaa Capital and local businessmen, held a first close on its Shuaa Saudi Hospitality Fund I on $240 million. The fund – said to be the first Saudi Arabia-domiciled private equity real estate fund – will develop 17 hotels and apartments in the kingdom.
A month earlier, Shuaa Partners, the private equity arm of Shuaa Capital, held the first close of Shuaa Hospitality Fund I on $165 million. The $200 million fund will invest in the hospitality sector in the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on GCC countries, Egypt and the Levant.
Shuaa Capital, Amwal and QInvest could not be reached for comment at time of press.