This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 30, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: Newly-listed Al-Salam Real Estate Investment Trust (Al-Salam REIT) will be targeting to acquire at least three new assets within the next two years.

The Islamic REIT’s chief executive officer Datuk Kamaruzzaman Abu Kassim said the assets would be a combination of retail spaces and offices in Kuala Lumpur and Johor.

Given the current weak market conditions and sentiment, Kamaruzzaman acknowledged that many people would think that perhaps the current timing is not the best for the group’s listing, but he believes that Al-Salam REIT has a role to play.

“Investors will still look for an outlet to invest their money, and we hope to do our part to excite the market,” he added.

Kamaruzzaman noted that part of the proceeds from the group’s initial public offering (IPO) would be utilised to acquire new assets.

Moving forward, Kamaruzzaman is confident that the group’s future acquisitions will be value-accretive and will improve Al-Salam REIT’s yield.

Kamaruzzaman added that the group’s property assets in Johor had seen an occupancy rate of more than 90%.

Al-Salam’s current portfolio includes the Komtar JBCC shopping mall, Menara Komtar, @Mart Kempas hypermarket, KFCH College, a chain of 27 KFC and Pizza Hut outlets nationwide, and warehouses.

For the group’s IPO of 252.36 million units of RM1 each, some 240.76 million units had been fully placed out to selected investors. The retail offering, the remaining 11.6 million units made available for subscription by the Malaysian public, was oversubscribed by 2.96 times.

The exercise raised RM252.36 million in proceeds for the REIT.

Al-Salam REIT is a unit under state investment firm Johor Corp, which is principally engaged in plantations, property development, healthcare, restaurants and investment holdings.

Al-Salam REIT’s units, which debuted at RM1.05 yesterday, traded at between RM1.04 and RM1.13 throughout the day, before settling at RM1.05, a five sen premium to its IPO offer price after some 104.96 million units changed hands. It has a market capitalisation of RM609 million.