UAE’s Equitativa to invest big in education realty

UAE-based asset manager Equitativa Group, that manages the world’s largest Sharjahcompliant REIT, is looking to invest around $300 million to acquire education-related real estate assets in India over the next one year, said a top company official.

The group is venturing into Indian market, looking for opportunities in logistics and commercial real estate apart from education space. Equitativa that currently manages two REITS — Emirates REIT and Residential REIT in Dubai — is planning to build its India portfolio and list REITs here.

“To begin with, we plan to launch a REIT in India with initial assets in the range of $200-$300 million in education sector. We are confident that this will be the beginning of a much larger opportunity that will benefit the sector and all stakeholders involved in it,” Abdul Wahab Al Halabi, chief investment officer, Equitativa Group, told ET.


According to him, the education sector in India is undergoing massive expansion and he expects investment in the sector to reach $50 billion in the coming decade. The group has recently roped in Nitin Agarwal as CEO of the India business to spearhead operations here. Agarwal has over 18 years of industry experience in banking and real estate and has worked previously with multinational banks such as HSBC and Citibank.

The group has already initiated talks to pick up schools and education-related real estate properties across India. After acquiring these properties, Equitativa would lease them back to these schools and the rental yield would be monetized through a REIT listing. REITs are companies that own, operate or finance income-producing real estate properties. Structured like mutual funds, REITs allow investors to own income-producing real estate properties and earn dividendsbased returns.

These are listed on stock exchanges. Indian market is yet to witness any REIT listing and most of the interest is generated around commercial real estate and logistics.

Apart from education-related properties, Equitativa Group, which has around $2 billion of assets under management, is also scouting for logistics and commercial properties in India.