Omniyat Properties to quadruple its property portfolio in Dubai alone to Dhs21bn in 2008

Speaking at a press conference held at Emirates Towers today to announce the company's annual results for 2007 and its plans for 2008, Mehdi Amjad, President and CEO of Omniyat Holdings, announced that the group's flagship company Omniyat Properties achieved sales of just over Dhs3bn ($817m) last year compared to Dhs1.5bnn ($408m) in its debut year in 2006.

He also revealed that the Omniyat Holdings group's profits tripled in 2007 compared to the previous year but did not disclose the company's profits value. "We are a privately held company and we are not obliged to reveal our figures, but I can tell you that our shareholders are very happy with the tripling of the profits," Amjad said.

He noted that even though Omniyat launched substantially less projects in 2007 than its debut year, it managed to achieve far better financial results. "This was due to the nature of the two projects we launched last year, which were more sophisticated and more valuable than our previous five projects that were launched in 2006," he explained.

Amjad noted that Omniyat Properties' sales performance was excellent in 2007, with the company almost completely selling out all office, retail and residential space in the projects that it has so far launched. Most of the remaining space, including parking unsold spaces, will be retained by Omniyat for future investment plans which are being finalized right now, he said.

Amjad attributed the company's successes in 2007 to its customers' deep appreciation of Omniyat's promise and trust in its products, adding that most of the company's customers who have invested in its projects have already made an excellent return on their investment in one way or the other, which is very important for Omniyat as it is one of its key promised to investors.

"What is just as important to us as our own sales volume and profitability is that 2007 was also an excellent year for our investors who bought property from Omniyat. I am very happy that most of our investors have achieved returns of between 100 and 200% on their investment as a result of the continued strong demand for our signature and bespoke properties in the market," he said.

"Today, our properties command a premium in both the primary and secondary market and those investors who have been buying our properties, whether directly or from another investor, have benefited tremendously," Amjad explained. "This explains why we always manage to sell out our projects at a premium and in a matter of weeks and much faster than most other developers," he said.

Omniyat's top executive noted that while 2007 saw the company launch two very important projects, it plans to be much more bullish with its launch in 2008 as it has now built the required infrastructure, resources, and land bank to allow it to pursue an aggressive expansion policy not just in Dubai but also beyond to other emirates and other countries in the region.

In 2007, Omniyat launched The Pad, which is one of the most, if not the most, technologically advanced residential buildings in the world. "With The Pad we have fulfilled our brand promise to create residential apartments that use the latest in tried and tested technology to make our customers' lives more comfortable and more convenient," Amjad said.

The Pad, an Dhs585m ($159m) tower, is currently the most expensive residential project in the Business Bay master development, and resales on the secondary market are commanding substantial premiums.

The other project Omniyat launched last year was The Opus, which it believes is one of the region's most prestigious office addresses. Designed by the world's leading architect, Zaha Hadid, the Opus has been a tremendous success and sold for the highest prices for an office tower in the region after the iconic Burj Dubai. "For a 20-storey building, this is quite an achievement," Amjad beamed.

Elaborating on the company's performance in 2007, he said that the year saw the size of the group and its team increase tremendously. "Omniyat Holdings and Omniyat Properties today employ more than 140 people and this number is growing by the day. With our other holding company, Almasa Holdings, which looks after our IT businesses, we have a total of almost 400 people," Amjad said.

Another important milestone for Omniyat Holdings in 2007 was the launch of Investate, a real estate investment company to be subject to the Central Bank of Bahrain regulation, in which Omniyat Holdings is the majority shareholder with a 40% stake.

Amjad pointed out that the launch of Investate, which has more than 35 shareholders that together form the who's who of the Gulf region, is a very important strategic move for Omniyat Holdings which will allow it to implement its ambitious and dramatic expansion plans, not just in the UAE but throughout the region in 2008 and beyond.

He said 2008 will be a very important milestone in the history of Omniyat because it will be the year when the company delivers its first projects. "With the massive growth that we have witnessed, it is sometimes easy to forget that we only started the company exactly 3 years ago and launched our first projects exactly two years ago," he said.

In 2008, Omniyat Properties will deliver both One Business Bay and Bayswater, and it is now on track to completing these two projects on schedule.

This year will also see the value of the company's portfolio quadruple to more than Dhs21bn ($6bn), almost double the company's previously-announced plans for over Dhs10bn ($3bn) in 2008. "In addition to the Dhs5.5bn ($1.5bn) we have already launched in the last two years, we will be bringing to the market another Dhs15bn ($4bn) worth of real estate and that's just in Dubai," Amjad said.

Omniyat Holdings, he noted, has been busy building a land bank for future development, and will soon announce locations of the plots of lands that it has acquired throughout the emirate of Dubai, all of which are in prime locations. "We've bought a few prime plots of land in different parts of Dubai, with almost 6 million square feet of development area at a total cost of more than Dhs2.2 bn ($600m)," he said.

He also announced that during 2008, the company will enter new markets such as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

"We have been working on these for quite some time now but we wanted to make sure that we have the right entry into these markets. Abu Dhabi has a lot of potential and we are determined to have strong presence there. We have conducted a lot of studies on the Bahrain and KSA markets, and they are also attractive markets with strong local demand," Amjad explained.

Another important milestone for the group in 2008 will be the launch of new companies under the umbrella of Omniyat Holdings but did not give details of the names of the new companies saying only that they will complement Omniyat's property development business.

"As we have always said, Omniyat aims to launch and operate companies which benefit from the entire real estate value chain. This includes investment management, facilities management and potentially even consumer mortgage financing. Our intention is to give our customers a holistic experience and make sure that their real estate investments all have the Omniyat stamp of approval," he said.