Dato Stewart La Brooy

With the growth of new private schools and universities in Malaysia and the government’s move to position Malaysia as a regional education hub, the AREA Group identified the need to provide these education operators with an asset-light strategy by securitising their assets with a professionally-run REIT so that these education operators can remain focused on their operations. As this is a new asset class, we have started the process by establishing an unlisted REIT called Alpha REIT with an initial property portfolio size of RM 305 million. We are now continuing to accumulate a larger portfolio of properties of up to RM 2-3 billion before undertaking the Initial Listing. We intend to list Alpha REIT within 36 months from its establishment. Alpha REIT is the first education asset-backed REIT in Southeast Asia with an added advantage of being Shariah-compliant. It will create and provide a transparent vehicle for education companies to securitise their assets within Alpha REIT and at the same time, enable us to grow the property portfolio our management to MYR 2-3 billion , before undertaking the Initial Listing.