Yaser Moustafa, SMD of NBKC Partners, on helping companies release trapped capital in real estate

Real estate in the Middle East is not just about luxury villas in Dubai anymore. New opportunities are opening up for real estate investments. Saudi Arabia is introducing REITs, and increasingly popular sale-leaseback agreements are helping corporations in the region to free up capital.

Dubai-based NBK Capital Partners recently rolled out a real estate investment platform focused on sale-leaseback solutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The platform is designed to help companies release capital trapped in real estate and channel it into growth initiatives, such as new business lines or mergers and acquisitions.

Yaser Moustafa, senior managing director of NBK Capital Partners, says: “We are now in the third wave of regional corporations’ use of sale-leaseback solutions. The first wave began in the wake of the global financial crisis, when companies such as Saudi retailer Al Azizia Panda United used sale-leasebacks as an alternative to bank financing to fuel growth.”

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