California-based Ares Management, through its credit funds, is handing Property Finder a USD 250 mn loan to support its expansion across the GCC, Bloomberg reports, citing statements from Property Finder founder and CEO Michael Lahyani. The move comes a little over a month after London’s Permira and US-based Blackstone Growth invested USD 525 mn into the Dubai-based IPO-hopeful, amid growing global institutional appetite for the UAE’s real estate sector.

REFRESHER- Property Finder already expanded into Qatar, Bahrain, and Egypt and is now eyeing Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The fresh capital will fund that regional push, while the company is also in talks with new equity investors to broaden its shareholder base, and is said to be weighing a potential IPO.

The move adds to a string of GCC-bound facilities from the US: US-based Oaktree Capital Management extended debt to Kuwaiti firm Arzan Investment Management earlier this month, while Goldman Sachs and Brookfield are also committing hundreds of mns to UAE real estate plays, the business news information service wrote.

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