Advertise on podcast: Brilliant Minds in Real Estate

Suraj speaks to Enrico Van Erklens - (CEO) and Nard Schuddebuers (COO) of Equity Estate. The Amsterdam based  firm is a ‘boutique practice’ for asset management. In close cooperation with JV Partners, EE develop unique, intelligent, and solid solutions and services in asset management.  Enrico and Nard elaborate on  'Core Deep Value' as a strategy and touch upon some of their successful partnerships with Middle Eastern investors.  Both Enrico and Nard come from unique professional backgrounds but what ties them is their ability to source deals with amazing value propositions.

Suraj catches up with Nael Mustafa who is the co-Chief investment officer of GFH.  GFH is an active global investor in private equity and real estate particularly. GFH holds US$ 12 billion of assets and funds under management, and holds c. US$ 1.5 billion of assets in several yielding real estate investments in the US and the UK.  Nael is an experienced investment banker with proven track record in private equity, real estate and capital market transactions. Prior to GFH, he was responsible for developing Arcapita’s business footprint geographically and product list as well as strategic M&A. Through his professional careers launched and managed over $1 Bn in Real Estate related funds in Mena / Europe. Transacted P/E in Mena with complete cycle track record.  Nael speaks about  investing into and alongside asset managers, pricing risk of assets, crypto currencies and some of favorite books. 

Sameer is the Head of Strategy and Investments at AW Rostamani Real Estate that is a part of a multibillion dollar UAE family business with wholly owned and partnership interests spanning a broad assets spectrum of automotive, real estate, lifestyle, logistics, travel, lighting, consultancy, and investments. Sameer brings over 20 years of experience in investments, portfolio management and development management having worked for Dubai World - a Sovereign Wealth Fund, Sedco Holding - a prominent Middle Eastern Family Office, Consulting firms such as Deloitte and Arthur Anderson .  Sameer talks about typical Dubai family office investment  strategy in western markets.

Pankaj Gupta - Co-Founder and Co-CEO  - Gulf Islamic Investments, a regional Sharia's-compliant leader in financial services with over 1.3 billion dollars of AUM GII views Islamic finance as a catalyst to strengthen economic linkages and boost cross-border investment between the Middle East and the rest of the world through investments in private equity and real estate. It invests in Education, technology, industrial, F&B, power, infrastructure, retail and healthcare.  Pankaj speaks about the importance of thorough due diligence and about his outlook of real estate in a Covid world.

Suraj speaks to Ronald Philip - Senior Director - Agility Logistics Park. At Agility, Ronald heads strategy for the group's industrial real estate business. Agility Logistics Parks is one of the largest private owners and developers of warehousing and light industrial parks in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. It funds, builds and manages international-standard facilities that help companies operate and expand in the world’s fastest-growing markets. A publicly traded global logistics company headquartered in Kuwait, providing freight forwarding, transportation, warehousing and supply chain management services to businesses, governments, international institutions and relief agencies worldwide. Agility has more than 22,000 employees and 500 offices across 100 countries.   Prior to joining Agility, Ronald worked with McKinsey  serving clients in the emerging markets, leading projects on topics related to strategy, corporate finance, capital productivity and performance improvement, predominantly in the infrastructure, real estate and transport sectors.   He's worked with the World Economic Forum (New York), PricewaterhouseCoopers, GE Capital and the World Bank.   He is educated at Harvard University and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode with finance coursework at HBS and MIT Sloan and executive education at Insead, Wharton and CEIBS (Beijing). Ronald worked in the US, China, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kenya & Bangladesh.  

Suraj speaks with Mohamed Ali, who is the Executive Director at NBK Capital Partners. It is the alternative investment arm of NBK Capital, a fully owned subsidiary of National Bank of Kuwait one of the largest and most prominent banks in the Middle East.  He has now been with NBK Capital Partners for over 4 years where he co-founded its MENA Real Estate business. The firm has advised on investments of over US$ 1billion and has a track record of 18 realizations from 29 investments, one of the highest number of profitable exits over the past decade by an alternative investments firm in the region