The Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) has completed the first transactions in its Islamic structured French property fund, Gulf Atlantic France (GAF). The first was a €70 million deal concluded by GFH with Unibail for the Alstom Transport headquarters building situated in the Saint Ouen district of Paris.
The deal has been quickly followed up with a €80 million acquisition from Velizy Developpement of a five building 25,000 square meter office development in the Velizy area south west of Paris, let to Peugeot Citroen Automobiles.
The two acquisitions by GFH are the first in France to utilize an Islamic compliant structure and constitute GFH's first entry into the French market with its €400 million GAF property fund. EuroHypo provided the funding of the Islamic structured financing of the deal for the Alstom deal while Société Générale provided the funding for the acquisition in Velizy.
GFH’s Islamic finance structure for the GAF fund remains within the edicts of Shariah guidelines and offers investors an extremely tax efficient means of investment, underlining a commitment to opening up prime real estate investment opportunities in the UK and Europe to Islamic investors.
HSD Ernst & Young, Paris, are the legal and tax advisors to Gulf Atlantic France property fund. Financière Centuria, a specialized advisory and asset management company has acted as financial advisor and coordinator to GFH in implementing these acquisitions. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
