The warehouse sector in Saudi Arabia provides great investment opportunities
The managing partner of Investcorp Private Wealth, Youssef Al-Youssef, said that the Gulf region is witnessing a major economic transformation with the launch of economic visions, including Saudi Vision 2030, and the company believes that the time is right to seize investment opportunities in the region with the shift to privatization and increased institutional work.
Youssef Al-Youssef added, in an interview with Al-Arabiya, today, Tuesday, that “Investcorp” is a global investment company with plans that extend to 40 years, and it has acquired industrial warehouses in Europe and America during the past 20 years, with acquisitions of about $ 24 billion.
Al-Youssef explained that the logistics sector is important to the economic transformation programs in Saudi Arabia, amid expectations that the sector will grow by 5.5% as a compound annual growth in the period from 2022 to 2027. Currently, there is a significant shortage in Saudi Arabia of high-quality warehouses that serve the rapid growth in the sectors of e-commerce, retail and industry. .
The managing partner of Investcorp Private Wealth said that “Investcorp” studies indicate that there are only about 72 million square meters of industrial warehouses in the Kingdom, and this does not meet its ambitions to make the Kingdom one of the important centers in the global logistics sector.
Investcorp, which manages $50 billion in assets, plans to invest about $1 billion in the Gulf real estate market over the next five years.
This follows its acquisition of a warehouse in Dammam, which represents the first of a $100 million real estate deal that Investcorp is currently considering and is located in several parts of Saudi Arabia.
The managing partner of Investcorp Private Wealth said that Investcorp is optimistic about the economic future of Saudi Arabia as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with openness to all countries in the region and a positive view of the Gulf countries, but most of the investments will be concentrated in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, given that they represent 70% of the GDP of the countries of the region.
He added that the company has studied the warehouse sector in Saudi Arabia, which represents opportunities for growth over the next 5 years, as well as the sectors of religious tourism, entertainment and real estate. Therefore, the company can play a major role in economic transformation programs and provide a package of investment solutions for institutional clients and family offices in the region.
He indicated that there is an ambitious initial plan to raise assets under management over the next 5 years, after it reached $50 billion by the end of December 2022, compared to $38 billion previously, to achieve a jump in less than two years.
Youssef Al-Yousef explained that the region is promising and that Investcorp has been investing in it since 2008, starting with the private property sector and acquiring 9 unlisted family companies in Saudi Arabia, and carrying out 4 listings in the Saudi Tadawul.
He stressed that the growth of assets came from the organic growth in the basic business sectors such as private property, real estate investments, hedge funds and infrastructure, and the strengthening of its presence in East Asia, India and China, in addition to the inorganic growth represented in the implementation of acquisitions, and last December it acquired a large company operating in Debt management activity Therefore, the volume of assets under management in the debt management sector increased to $ 22 billion, making it among the 15 largest asset managers in debt management investments globally.
It is noteworthy that the value of Investcorp’s investments in warehouses at the global level exceeded $ 4 billion.
