DUBAI, 27 December 2007 — Dubai’s Istithmar said yesterday it had sold 230 Park Avenue to a group including a fund managed by Goldman Sachs Group for $1.15 billion, its second New York property sale in less than two months.
The Dubai state investment agency planned to sell some properties in London and New York and redeploy some capital to real estate in Asia, the chief investment officer of its parent Dubai World, Yu Lai Boon, said this month.
Istithmar, which sold 280 Park Avenue to Broadway Properties in November for $1.35 billion, said in a statement it made a profit of $445 million from the sale of 230 Park Avenue to Goldman’s Whitehall Fund and Monday Properties.
It said it bought the property for $705 million in November 2005.
Dubai World, with about $20 billion in real estate assets outside of Dubai, holds global assets ranging from British port operator P&O, New York luxury retailer Barneys and office buildings such as London’s One Trafalgar Square.
The group, which also has stakes in Thai developer Raimon Land and US casino firm MGM Mirage, is merging two real estate units — Nakheel and Istithmar Real Estate — into a single unit, Middle East Economic Digest reported last month.
Dubai World still owns New York properties including 450 Lexington Avenue, The W Hotel Union Square, and the Knickerbocker Hotel in Times Square.
Separately, UAE mortgage firm Amlak Finance said yesterday it would more than double 2007 profit, sending its shares surging as much as 5.5 percent to their highest in more than a year.
Amlak, the largest UAE mortgage financer by market value, confirmed in a statement on the Dubai bourse website a newspaper report that 2007 net profit growth would be more than 120 percent to at least AED285 million ($77.61 million). The company posted net profit of AED130.42 million in 2006 and earned AED172.56 million in the first nine months of this year.
Shares of Amlak, which fell in early trading, closed up 4.88 percent after rallying as much as 5.5 percent.
to their highest level since Dec. 20, 2006.
“Amlak shares rose because it said its full year profit has grown to 285 million dirhams, which is a great increase,” said Amr Diab, head of Gulf Arab institutional sales at investment bank EFG-Hermes.
Amlak posted its second-biggest profit ever in the third quarter, doubling over last year, as it lent more and cut borrowing costs.
The firm, in which Emaar Properties holds a 40 percent stake, reshuffled its senior management this year to help boost profitability, its Chairman Nasser Al-Shaikh said in May.
Amlak applied for a banking license 18 months ago to take deposits, a cheaper source of funding for its home loan business than either bank loans or bonds.
The mortgage financer would renew its application for an Islamic banking license next year, Emirates Business reported this month, citing Shaikh.
EFG-Hermes set a long-term fair value for the stock of AED 3.34 this month.
Amlak, which also operates in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, said this month it planned to raise AED 6 billion next year to fund Middle East expansion, including selling shares in a planned Jordanian affiliate.
The firm on Wednesday also confirmed it had bought 460,000 square feet of land in Nasr City for 515 million Egyptian pounds ($93.41 million).
