Kuwait Finance House has $1.5 billion in assets under
management (AUM), with investments primarily in key US cities, Malaysia,
Shenzhen in China, and the Middle East, Ali Al-Ghannam, international real
estate department manager, told Reuters.
The real estate arm, which started operations in the 1990s,
has previously invested in property in the United States and Europe, including
Britain, with AUM totaling $4-4.5 billion, but it liquidated those assets in
2005 and 2006.
“Back in 2005 and 2006, we could see that prices were very
very expensive, and if you are in the industry you get very worried because of
where they are heading,” Al-Ghannam said in an interview on the sidelines of a
conference in Hong Kong.
“We reached a decision in the middle of 2005; we decided to
liquidate everything because of the overheated real estate prices.”
Now, it is back in the business of expanding.
Kuwait Finance House was now focusing on expanding its real
estate portfolio globally to reach around $4 billion in coming years,
Al-Ghannam said, declining to provide a timeframe.
The Kuwaiti lender will be looking for opportunities in
Guangzhou, after a successful residential investment in Shenzhen. Both cities
are in southern China.
Kuwait Finance House, which invests according to Islamic
law, also put money into residential property in US cities such as New York,
San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In Malaysia, which has an active Islamic finance market,
Kuwait Finance House is involved in a mixed-use project just across from
Singapore that has shopping malls, offices and residential units.
The company will also invest in Singapore and Hong Kong if
prices are right, Al-Ghannam said.
“We looked at Hong Kong and Singapore, but those two are
very expensive.”
Although seeking to expand globally, it is putting other
markets, including Japan, South Korea and India, on the backburner.
