Qatar's Ezdan to sell partof portfolio to Malaysian REIT

DOHA: Qatar's Ezdan Real Estate Co expects its net profit in the fourth quarter to be similar to that of the third and is aiming to sell part of its property portfolio by year-end to a Malaysian-basedREIT to finance new projects, its managing director said yesterday.

Qatar's largest property developer by market value expects strong demand for affordable housing in its home market.

The fourth quarter net profit result would be "similar" to the 94 million Qatar riyals made in the third quarter, Hesham el-Sahtary told Reuters in an interview.

Ezdan, with about US$1 billion (RM3.41 billion) worth of projects under construction, is also working on selling some of its portfolio, worth about 600-700 million riyals to a real estate investment trust based in Malaysia to help finance future projects.
"They will buy the property from us and we will manage it for them with a fixed return," said Sahtary. "The plan is to launch it in Malaysia as an international fund and we hope to conclude it this year," he said.

By Reuters