International Investment Bank (IIB), a Bahrain-based investment bank operating in line with Shariah principles, has exited Bahrain Property Fund (BPF), a diversified portfolio of residential and commercial properties in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Incorporated as a closed shareholding company in the Kingdom of Bahrain in March 2004, BPF acquired a total of five income generating properties at a total purchase price of $37.4m. These purchases were leveraged at 50% with the fund acquiring bank financing of $18.7m from local banks.
Aabed Al-Zeera, CEO at IIB, said: “While the global economy is still on the downturn, this announcement is a significant achievement for our valued investors. The realized IRR of 9.12% p.a. is very close to the targeted IRR of 10.0% p.a. in our offering documents. In the context of the current financial crisis, we believe that the 9.12% p.a. is very attractive.
“We would also like to point out that at the time of this investment offering in 2004, the returns on investments in money market instruments and cash deposits were very low and this fund was presented as an attractive current income producing alternative to cash deposits, albeit of a longer maturity.”