Mubasher: SHUAA Capital Saudi Arabia announced the launch of the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) fund “SHUAA REIT”, a closed-ended publicly traded real estate investment fund that is approved by Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA), according to a recent press release.

SHUAA REIT fund has a subscription period from Monday, 25 March until Sunday, 7 April  2019, the financial services provider said.

The fund will offer 30.515 million units to the public at a price of SAR 10 per unit, totalling SAR 305.150 million or accounting for 51.5% of the REIT's total size of SAR 591.500 million.

SHUAA REIT fund is expected to acquire six income-generating real estate assets in four key sectors and in vital areas of Riyadh.

The Saudi CMA aims at boosting the efficiencies of REITs by following strict principles that contribute to reducing the risks associated with REITs, ensuring the readiness of the assets, and the solidity of the contracts from a regulatory and legal perspective.

“The updated regulations also include a newly introduced 12-month lock-up period for majority unitholders that begins from the start of unit trading in the Saudi stock market, which ultimately contributes to a more stable market price for the unit,” the press release said.

The CEO of SHUAA Capital Saudi Arabia’s Omar Al Jaroudi said: “REITs are not considered speculative high growth instruments that generate high capital returns. We remain focused on offering our clients and investors distinctive financial solutions within the Saudi Arabian market.”