Lembaga Tabung Haji acquires third UK property worth US$123.63 million - IFN

Lembaga Tabung Haji acquires third UK property worth US$123.63 million

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GLOBAL: Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH), Malaysia’s national Hajj pilgrimage fund, has successfully completed the acquisition of Unilever House in Leatherhead, Surrey – a 176,100 sq ft office campus, arranged over three floors, housing Unilever's UK & Ireland headquarters. The GBP75.8 million (US$123.63 million) transaction was carried out by way of a corporate acquisition involving a purchase and a Shariah compliant financing scheme. The acquisition is LTH’s third in the UK and first outside of London. Purchased from LondonMetric Property, the deal was executed within a short period of time between December 2013 and January 2014. Funding thereof was provided by the Export-Import Bank of Malaysia in the form of a senior Murabahah facility. The sale price reportedly reflects a net initial yield of 5.9%. Advisors involved in the transaction were: Trowers & Hamlins, Gatehouse Bank, KPMG, Volaw in Jersey, Ogier in Jersey and Guernsey, and Zaid Ibrahim & Co in Malaysia. In the fourth quarter of last year, the institution procured a financing package of GBP225 million (US$336.99 million) from Maybank Islamic, Standard Chartered Saadiq and OCBC Al Amin to fund its investments in the UK. LTH posted a revenue of RM3.7 billion (US$6.03 billion) for the year 2013, recording a 34% increase from 2012. Its net income after Zakat totalled at RM2.6 billion (US$4.24 billion) compared to RM2.1 billion (US$3.42 billion) in the previous year. It has approximately US$9.78 billion-worth of assets under management. According to the group managing director and CEO, Ismee Ismail, LTH is focused on strategic investments in major cities in Malaysia and properties in the UK, Australia and Saudi Arabia.