NBK launches Islamic Asian Real Estate Fund

The investment objective of the Fund is to seek current income and capital appreciation from a portfolio of investments in Asian real estate in accordance with Islamic Shari'ah principles.

Mr. Isam Al Sager, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at NBK explained that the Fund is a long-term investment vehicle designed to achieve an expected IRR of 14-16% per annum with an expected annualized net quarterly distribution of 4% growing to 8% by the end of the Investment Period and 8-9% thereafter. The Fund is a long-term investment vehicle, denominated in US Dollars and suitable for investors with a long-term investment horizon who are seeking steady quarterly income with the possibility of capital appreciation at maturity.

Mr. Isam Al Sager also added that the Fund will pursue its objective by investing in a diversified portfolio of high quality office buildings and residential real estate properties in exclusively first-class inner-city locations in Asian countries such as Korea, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand. The Fund will invest in the properties acquired by TMW Asia Fund on a Shari'ah compliant basis. Furthermore, it is expected that the growth in the Asian economies over the next few years will help boost the performance of the real estate sector.'

TMW Immobilien A.G., the investment advisor of the Fund, is a premier international real estate investment firm fully owned by Prudential Financial Inc. TMW and Prudential Real Estate have combined assets under management close to US$22 billion, making them the 3rd largest real estate manager worldwide. For over 20 years, TMW has been involved in cross border real estate investments in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

The initial subscription period starts today, April 25th 2004 and will continue until May 13th 2004. The minimum investment amount in the Fund is US$500,000 with additional amounts in multiples of US$10,000. The Fund is closed-ended and investors can only subscribe into the Fund during the initial offering period.