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The property investment arm of the State of Kuwait is seeking trophy assets outside its base in the UK, Eastern Europe and Australia and has outsourced the management of its French business to CB Richard Ellis
St Martins Property Group is expanding globally. The investment arm of the State of Kuwait plans to double the size of its portfolio over the next five years by spending £1bn (euro1.5bn) a year on acquisitions and development opportunities.
Although the UK and continental Europe will remain the core of the company's portfolio, St Martins will increase its exposure to emerging markets such as South America, Russia and China. As part of the Kuwaiti government's Fund for Future Generations, which was set up in the 1970s in order to provide a fund for the future and to reduce the country's reliance on its finite oil resource, St Martins is not out to make a quick buck.
"Our strategy is to target assets with long-term potential in prime locations," explains Nigel Brown, the company's managing director. "We will look at larger, trophy assets that provide future development opportunities after their current economic life has ended."
Following St Martin's purchase last year of Poland's Plejada shopping centre in Sosnowiec, which...