First Dubai Real Estate's board approves capital increase to KD100m

The proposal was approved and recommended by the Board of Directors and will be presented to the First Dubai General Assembly for approval.

Upon receiving approval from the GA, the company will raise 100% of the current capital from strategic investors, through a new equity placing, with value of 300 fils per share, to issue 220 million shares to investors and 441 million free shares to existing shareholders with a nominal value of 100 fils per share. The company will issue a pre-emptive offer to existing shareholders of cash shares with a nominal value of 100 fils per share, in order to raise the remaining KD11m for a total of KD78m- the amount required to raise capital from KD22m to KD100m.

The capital raise will be used to implement the company's expansion strategy, which includes developing projects in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, such as the Waterfront project in Dubai, a leading project master developed by Nakheel and one of Al Mazaya's most promising, due to its strategic location and the rising demand for units in this development.

Eng. Khalid Esbaitah, Vice Chairman of First Dubai, said, "Al Mazaya Holding, 77.9% owner of the First Dubai Real Estate Development Co., has, along with its subsidiaries, ambitious expansion plans across the GCC and Arab countries. Al Mazaya's strategic policy for entry into new markets has generated a number of promising investment opportunities."

Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Kandari, said that the company has achieved a number of important achievements since inception, the most recent of which was the sale of the DIFC-based Sky Gardens, for a nett profit of KD74m. These profits will be added to the company's financial results for the first half of 2008, and for the year 2008.

Esbaitah added that the capital increase was required in oder for the firm's current and forthcoming expansion plans and development projects to cope with ever-tighter competition in the market and to fund its growing real estate activity.