EFTA Document EFTA01773495

From: Sultan Bin Sulayem Sent: Wednesday, October To: Mohammed Al Abbaar; Jeffrey Epstein Dub=i's ICD, Brookfield to launch $1bn real estate fund By&nb=p;Joanne Bladd Wednesday, 26 Octobe= 2011 12:29 PM <http://m.arabianbusiness.com/incomineartide358115.ece/ALTERNA=ES/g1I/98302998%282%29.jpg> Investment Corporation of=Dubai (ICD), a state-controlled company, and Canada's Brookfield As=et Management plan to start a $1bn fund to buy up assets in Dubai's battere= real estate market. The fund will b= jointly backed by the two companies, which will each seed the fund with $1=0m, the Dubai Media Office said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. The fund will be capped at $1bn. The pair w=ll anchor the fund, with a limited number of local and international parties invited to invest in the scheme, the statement said. "The investment strategy of the fund will target o=portunities currently available in the Dubai real estate sector, with a foc=s on a wide class of assets in both freehold and non-freehold areas,"=the statement said. "The fund will have a life of 8 to 10 years.0=8* Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani, C=O of ICD, said the company was "looking forward to participating in=the recovery of the Dubai real estate market." "This venture with Brookfield is the first 'Dubai=only' investment fund that is sponsored by a leading international investor=" he said. ICD holds about $=0bn in assets and its portfolio includes airline Emirates and stakes in Dub=i's largest bank, Emirates NBD, developer Emaar Properties and Borse Dubai.=/p> Brookfields, a global asset manager w=th interests in property and infrastructure, plans to relocate employees to=Dubai to oversee the fund, alongside "qualified UAE nationals0=9D, the statement said. The company ha= 2,000 staff in Dubai through its construction arm, Brookfield Multiplex.</=> Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, cha=rman of Dubai's Supreme Fiscal Committee, said the signing was "ano=her big step" in the Gulf emirate's economic growth. "It once more affirms Dubai's attrac=iveness as a premier investment destination in this region," he sai=. Property prices in Dubai soared aft=r the city opened its real estate sector to foreign investors in 2002, gran=ing them freehold ownership rights at many developments. EFTA_R1_00086345 EFTA01773495 From start-2007 to mid-2008, prices rallied almost 80=percent, Morgan Stanley estimates showed, with billions of dollars worth of=new projects launched by local developers. But home prices in Dubai, the Gulf property market that had the bigges= reversal because of the financial crisis, fell more than 60 percent in the=wake of the global credit crunch. Ho=se prices in Dubai showed signs of recovery in the third quarter, with slig=t rises in prime projects such as Palm Jumeirah and Arabian Ranches, Jones L=ng LaSalle said in September. But an=lysts remain concerned that the estimated 33,000 new homes scheduled to hit=Dubai's market by end-2012 could cause fresh declines in rental and=sale prices. Rating agency Moody's said this week that house prices are unl=kely to recover until 2016. Dubai has unveiled a slate of gove=nment-backed financing schemes aimed at resuscitating its property market. Ire emirate's Land Department last month signed a deal to identify su=pended or offplan residential developments and offer them for sale or long-=erm lease to investors. In May, the ag=ncy unveiled a scheme to offer low-interest bank loans to developers with p=rtially-constructed projects. RELATED: Sent from my iPhone 2 EFTA_R1_00086346 EFTA01773496