Investcorp to invest $1 billion in Saudi Arabia’s real estate over the next five year

Investcorp Holdings, one of the largest asset managers in the Middle East, plans to invest as much as $1 billion in Saudi real estate over the next five years to tap an anticipated property boom in the kingdom.

The Bahrain-based investor, which manages over $40 billion in assets, has already acquired a logistics warehouse in Dammam in the east of the kingdom, and has identified a further $100 million in potential deals, it said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to attract foreign funds into its property and logistics sectors as part of plans to become a regional business and trade hub. These ambitions are part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s broader strategy to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil income.

Investcorp, backed by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co., has already invested about $4 billion in warehousing and logistics facilities in countries such as the US, UK and India.

The company “likes the logistics sector a lot, but will look at all types of real estate in Saudi Arabia, said Babak Sultani, head of private wealth real estate. Any investments will be financed by Investcorp and then syndicated to clients, he said.

Investcorp delisted from the Bahrain stock exchange in 2021 after almost four decades, in a move it said would give it the agility to expand faster. Mubadala in 2017 acquired a 20 percent stake in Investcorp, which previously backed companies including Tiffany & Co. and Gucci Ltd.