Yousef Al Shelash (middle), Chairman of Dar Al Arkan, with two other company executives during a press conference in Riyadh Monday.Saeed Al Khotani Saudi Gazette RIYADH – Saudi giant real estate developer Dar Al Arkan announced Monday that it has been negotiating for some time with the Ministry of Housing to build around 50,000 housing units in four years, under the 10-year massive project of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to build 500,000 housing units. At a press conference held by the company at its headquarters here, Yousef Al Shelash, Chairman of Dar Al Arkan, also confirmed the successful repayment in the same day of its Islamic bonds (Sukuk-II) amounting to SR3.75 billion ($1 billion), through Deutsche Bank, exactly on its due day. "Our repayment of the bonds on the exact due date, along with the newly cabinet passed law of mortgage, will strongly enhance our capabilities, especially in terms of finance, to carry out building this number of units once the negotiations ends in our favor. Because of the large scale of our proposed takes considerable time to tackle all details before reaching an agreement that we hope to be in favor. The negotiation has taken momentum during the last six months," he said. Al Shelash said the repayment process was outstanding achievement for his company. Moreover, Dar Al Arkan chairman assured that his company would maintain its prestigious reputation position. "So, as we did, we will repay in the coming two years two issues of Islamic bonds with a total value of SR2.4 billion. One issue with value of SR750 million due in 2o14 and the other valued at SR1.69 billion due in 2015. The fund that we had generated out of our Islamic bond schemes within the last five years has helped us in achieving remarkable outcomes in our business," Al Shelash said. "The outcomes ranged between establishing the appropriate companies to handle different type of business lines and acquire millions meters of lands, carrying out many mega commercial and residential building project, giving rewarding return to our investors, and building sound financial and infrastructural base," he added.
