INDONESIA - INVESTMENT FUND - Al-’Aqar mulls opening trust in Indonesia

www.btimes.com.my - Al-’Aqar Healthcare Real Estate Investment Trust, Malaysia’s oldest Islamic REIT, is considering opening a trust in Indonesia as the nation reviews its first application five years after legalizing such property companies.

Kuala Lumpur-based Al-’Aqar, which already owns two hospitals in Indonesia, would look at registering a trust in the Southeast Asian country provided it gets tax incentives and clearer rules on foreigners owning land are implemented, Executive Director Yusaini Sidek said by e-mail yesterday.(source)


Indonesia has received its first proposal for a real-estate trust five years after introducing laws allowing them, according to the Capital Market and Financial Institution Supervisory Agency. The world’s most populous Muslim country is lagging behind Singapore, which has 24 REITs, two of them focused on Indonesian property, and Malaysia, which has 13, including two Islamic trusts. Islamic assets account for less than 4 percent of total banking holdings in Indonesia.

“What Indonesia needs now are clearer guidelines and more information to see REITs begin to grow,” Abas A. Jalil, the Kuala Lumpur-based chief executive officer at Amanah Capital Group Ltd., a consultancy company, said in an April 23 interview. “The country has the potential to have a very large REIT market.”

Regulators are considering an application for a REIT made in 2012, Fakhri Hilmi, director of the investment management bureau at the Capital Market and Financial Institution Supervisory Agency in Jakarta, said in an interview last week, declining to give more details. -- Bloomberg

Source: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20120503093900/Article/index_html  - May 3, 2012