By Mahmoud Hammad
Rana Adawi, Co-founder and Managing Director of Acumen Holding Ltd, said that the company will begin its real-estate fund -the first of its kind in the Egyptian market- in March 2016. With a capital ranging between EGP 250mn and $300mn.
Adawi has singled The Middle East Observer out with her announcements regarding the main reason the company founded this fund, which was the crisis Egypt’s financial market has went through during the past 5 years. This, according to her statements, pushed Acumen to think of “untraditional” products and investments, ideas like the real estate investments are the safest place to run your assets.
She also added that what made Acumen towards new investments was the rise in Saving Certificates, which commercial banks put at 13,5 per cent -in Acumen’s real-estate fund puts a target of 19 percent interest-rate. Acumen patiently chooses the grounds it steps upon, that’s why the fund will start running next March not earlier- to carefully put effective means to do successful business.
Real-estate investment funds operate through owning real-estate assets, lands and buildings, and use them in investments, renting and reselling; that’s according to the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority’s bylaws for real- estate funds. Adawi also added that overrated taxes on real-estate investments prevented the establishment of any investment funds during the past period, but new reforms regarding income taxes laws and documentation of capital profits and distributions’ investment funds. She cleared out that many countries give individualize real-estate investment funds through tax-exemptions, to encourage young investors to buy and profit.
Adawi urges to find real profit for investors behind real-estate investment funds, for it to do what it really does, and attract the most of investors in the market. Ceo Adawi also said that those funds will refresh the real-estate sector, because it would simply allow owners to buy parts of the property through assets, as it will also provide market liquidity and investments opportunities.
Acumen Holding ltd. is an investment bank that offers many financial services to companies and individuals, whether by assets brokerage or management, as well as the upcoming real-estate investment funds. The Acumen funds -to be first of its kind in Egypt- have been previously attempted by many commercial and investment banks before, yet there were always halts due to the volatility of the Egyptian market.
