Islamic real estate investment trusts (REITs) will be launched on Bahrain Bourse next month, chief executive Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said yesterday (April 22).

“We also plan to launch the Bahrain Investment Market, an alternative market geared towards bridging the financing channels for small and growing businesses which will see the light at the end of second quarter,” he told the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Talking on the sidelines of the Arab Federation of Exchanges (AFE) Equities Summit 2015, Shaikh Khalifa said that this year retail investors were given the opportunity to subscribe to Bahrain government sukuks primary subscription through Bahrain Bourse with a total issuance size of $663 million, which was oversubscribed.

“In the aftermath of the unprecedented drop in oil prices, we have seen a significant opportunity to raise capital for projects through stock exchanges as opposed to the traditional financing channels,” he said.

Dubai-based Nirvana Consultants chief analyst Varun Sutholiya said a REIT is a security that sells like a stock on the major exchanges and invests in real estate directly, either through properties or mortgages.

“Through investments in REITs, individual investors get the benefits of owning an interest in the securitised real estate market.

“They allow fast and easy liquidation of investments in the real estate market unlike the traditional way of disposing of real estate,” Sutholiya said. - TradeArabia News Service