Arada, the Sharjah developer jointly owned by Saudi Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed’s KBW Investments and Sharjah-based Basma Group, has agreed a partnership with Aldar worth about Dh15 billion ($4 billion). The deal takes Arada into Abu Dhabi for the first time and pairs it with the emirate’s largest listed developer.
At the centre of the agreement is a masterplan joint venture for a mixed-use community at Seih Sdeirah, on the border between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, covering up to 1.5 million square metres. The project will include villas, townhouses, shops and leisure facilities. Arada will lead development and construction management, while the two companies will share responsibility for branding and sales. Separately, Arada has bought three residential plots on Yas Island, two of them facing a canal, with a combined area of more than 27,500 square metres.
Talal Al Dhiyebi, group chief executive of Aldar, said the Yas Island and Seih Sdeirah sites give the partnership “a strong foundation”. Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, Arada’s group chief executive, described the agreement as “the beginning of what we intend to be a long and productive collaboration”. The companies plan to look at further work together across other sectors and asset classes in the UAE.
The Abu Dhabi move extends an expansion drive by the prince-backed developer.
Arada works in the UAE, the UK, Australia and Syria, and values its global projects at Dh130 billion, covering more than 55,000 homes across the UAE, the UK and Australia. In September it announced a $7 billion mixed-use scheme in Damascus with 11,000 homes, 500 hotel rooms and 1,000 serviced apartments. In August it unveiled a Dh5 billion development in Queensland of close to 1,000 homes in two towers, and last year it bought UK mixed-use developer Regal, through which it is building new projects in London.
Aldar brings a large pipeline of its own. It unveiled the Dh100 billion Marsa Al Saadiyat waterfront destination in July and launched Yas Riva Reserve, a gated community of 292 villas on Yas Island, in September. Its second-quarter net profit rose 10 per cent to Dh2.16 billion, and its development backlog stood at Dh71.6 billion at the end of June, Dh59.9 billion of it in the UAE. The partnership arrives as Abu Dhabi property deals in the first half rose 112 per cent year on year to Dh117 billion, according to the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre.
