Property developer The First Group plans to take its £50 million Emirates Opportunities Fund into less well-known regions.

The First Group is seeking $100 million, with a minimum investment of $25,000 for the fund, which will invest in a way that complies with Shariah law in property projects in fast-growing Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.

David Scott, The First Group’s commercial director, says, besides the overall growth and property shortage in the whole area, particular opportunities present themselves in the relatively under-exploited northern emirates, especially Fujairah, which has a passage to the Indian Ocean and the third-largest oil bunkering port in the world, with a pipeline under construction from Abu Dhabi.

Guernsey-regulated First International Property Investments will manage the fund, a five-year closed-ended vehicle to be listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange, and the adviser will be the Dubai-regulated Tabarak group, a long-established concern whose partners have so far put together £600 million of Islamic deals.

The intention is to use Shariah financing for joint venture plot acquisitions and development with pre-agreed profit and exit strategies, as well as passive investments and the building of a strategic land bank in the northern emirates, where Scott says Tabarak has good contacts with local rulers.        

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