ASAR advises Eskan Bank and SICO

ASAR – Al Ruwayeh & Partners (ASAR), one of the Gulf region’s top tier law firms has acted as sole transaction counsel to Eskan Bank and Securities & Investment Company (SICO) in the structuring and initial public offering of the Shari’ah-compliant Eskan Bank Realty Income Trust (EBRIT), Bahrain’s first retail real estate investment trust.

The IPO, which closed on December 6, 2016, offered approximately 145 million units of the total 198 million units in issuance at an offer price of 100 fils per unit, a total value of USD38.2 million. The IPO achieved 95.5 per cent subscription, with total subscription of nearly 138 million units for USD 36.6 million. The units have been listed for trading on the Bahrain Bourse on January 2, 2017.

EBRIT’s IPO represents a landmark transaction introducing for the first time in Bahrain a new asset class – listed retail real estate investment trusts. This deal involves numerous other firsts, including: the first retail real estate investment trust to be the offered through an IPO in Bahrain; the first listing under the retail real estate investment trust listing and trading rules of the Bahrain Bourse; and the first retail real estate investment trust to be structured under the newly enacted Bahrain Trusts Law of 2016. The ASAR team working on the transaction included Steven Brown, managing attorney of ASAR’s Bahrain office, senior associate Simone Del Nevo and associate Mahmood Al-Oraibi.

Sam Habbas, senior partner at ASAR commented, “We are delighted to have been involved in EBRIT’s successful IPO. ASAR has a long established history of acting as counsel in capital markets transactions and we are very proud of being at the forefront of legal innovation and to have participated in setting the local standard for this new asset class. The successful conclusion of this IPO is the result of the hard work of SICO, EBRIT, and the relevant regulators in Bahrain.”