Aldar Properties PJSC (ALDAR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's Aldar Properties' Full Year 2025 Financial Results Earnings Call. My name is Seb, and I'll be the operator for your call today. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand you over to Talal Al Dhiyebi, Group Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our full year 2025 financial and operating performance. Starting on Slide 3. Aldar delivered an outstanding performance, reflecting the strength of our diversified platform and consistent execution of our strategy. Group revenue increased 47% to AED 33.8 billion, and EBITDA rose 46% to AED 11.2 billion. We set a new record for net profit after tax of AED 8.8 billion, an increase of 36% year-on-year. The strong pace of growth was broad-based across all core businesses and continues to be marked by asset class and geographical diversification to drive long-term shareholder value. Aldar Development delivered an exceptional performance amid robust economic fundamentals in our core UAE market. We continue to reinforce our leading position in Abu Dhabi, expand our footprint in Dubai, while also building scale in our U.K. and Egypt platforms. Group sales reached an all-time high of AED 40.6 billion, up 21%, supported by solid demand for existing inventory and 11 successful launches in the UAE. Development EBITDA increased by 67% to AED 7.2 billion. And we ended the year with a record development backlog of AED 71.7 billion, providing strong visibility for revenue recognition over the coming years. Aldar Investment continues to solidify its status as a leading regional real estate owner and investment manager. Operating diversified businesses, the platform has grown progressively to AED 49 billion in total assets under management. Importantly, to drive further growth in our recurring income business in the years ahead, we continue to deploy capital into mergers and acquisitions and expand our Develop-to-Hold pipeline, which stood at AED 17.2 billion at year-end. In 2025, Aldar Investment delivered another year of solid growth, driven by increased rental rates, high occupancy across asset classes and meaningful contributions from our recent acquisitions. The platform reported full year revenue of AED 8.1 billion, up 16% and adjusted EBITDA of AED 3.2 billion, representing an increase of 20%. On Slide 4, we highlight the strategic initiatives announced in the last 12 months. I'll focus on the more recent announcements, starting with the establishment of Aldar Capital through a joint venture with Mubadala Capital, represents an important milestone in our strategy to diversify income streams and deliver capital-light growth. This partnership brings our core strengths together with the institutional limited partner network of Mubadala Capital, and we aim to launch the first $1 billion fund later this year. Our strategic partnership with Mubadala Investment Company has also broadened significantly through the North Al Maryah Island expansion, which we announced in December. We are very proud and excited to be driving the development of the next phase of Abu Dhabi's Financial District at North Al Maryah Island. With a gross development value of over AED 60 billion, the initiative will double the commercial space and enhance the lifestyle offering substantially through hospitality and residential offerings. We're moving ahead with master planning and core infrastructure works this year and look forward to providing further updates in due course. Meanwhile, the previously announced retail joint venture with Mubadala has also closed in 2025 with Aldar owning a 75% stake, Mubadala owning 25% based on final independent valuations. The partnership merges Yas Mall and the Galleria Luxury Collection to create a premium retail champion with a gross asset value of AED 9.8 billion. Aldar is responsible for the management of these assets, leveraging our expertise and creating significant value through synergies and leasing strategies. On the Development side, we launched 11 projects in the UAE, notably unveiling a new destination in Abu Dhabi, which is Fahid Island, providing a key engine of growth in the coming years. Two milestone transactions during the year further highlighted the confidence in Abu Dhabi's residential market and its broad appeal. On Saadiyat Island, Aldar completed the sale of 71 units residential building at Mamsha Gardens to Gaw Capital Partners for AED 586 million. A clear example of Aldar's and the UAE's ability to attract global institutional capital into a Develop-to-Sell asset. In addition, Aldar completed the sale of an 8-bedroom mansion at Faya Al Saadiyat for AED 400 million, the most valuable residential transaction in Abu Dhabi to date, setting a new benchmark in Abu Dhabi's luxury real estate market and reflecting growing demand from high net worth individuals. As we have indicated in previous quarters, we remain focused on land replenishment as a growth driver. In early 2026, we announced the addition of AED 23 billion of gross development value to our Abu Dhabi land bank. The sites span over 2.3 million square meters and will deliver approximately 3,000 new homes across plots on Saadiyat, Yas and adjacent to Yas Island. The land plots will be activated through a 51-49 joint venture structure with an established partner, where Aldar will lead the full development sales, delivery life cycle of these new projects. Furthermore, in Dubai, our existing strategic joint venture with Dubai Holding continues to gain considerable momentum. And last week, we announced the expansion of our partnership through the addition of two land plots with a combined GDV of AED 38 billion. One of the plots is situated along the D54 growth corridor, opposite Nad Al Sheba, where we will develop a mid-market family-focused community. The other plot is on Palm Jebel Ali, where we are planning a luxury waterfront project of around 2,000 apartments. Including North Al Maryah, this brings the total land replenishment GDV to over AED 120 billion. In Aldar Investment, we continue to expand through a number of value-accretive transactions. Most notably, we exercised our option to acquire Mubadala's 40% stake in Al Maryah Tower commercial building, consolidating our JV stake as was always intended. And in Industrial & Logistics, we deployed about AED 1.1 billion of capital to acquire assets at the Al Markaz and two Grade A assets in KEZAD. Turning now to Slide 5. I'd like to take a moment to highlight the tremendous progress Aldar has made in our transformation journey. The scale-up is clear. Since 2020, net profit has surged almost five-fold. Return on invested capital doubled to 13.4%. 5-year total shareholder returns reached 222%. Assets under management tripled to AED 49 billion. And the development backlog has grown more than 20-fold to over AED 71 billion. The quality of earnings has also been enhanced through diversification with Aldar expanding into new areas, including Industrial & Logistics, Self Storage and Ultra Luxury Living, whilst also increasing exposure to other alternative asset segments. We have also broadened our geographic footprint through successful entries into a number of markets, notably Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Egypt and the U.K. This has provided the company with greater resilience and a strong platform to sustain our growth trajectory, and I will discuss the drivers of future growth shortly. With that, I'll hand over to Faisal to take you through the details on capital deployment, financial and operational performance as well as sustainability.

Thank you, Talal. Turning to Slide 6 which captures our '25 capital deployment. We remain committed to deploying capital and investing in growth. We have always taken a highly disciplined approach to how and where we deploy capital, despite benefiting from a strong investment pipeline. During the year, we deployed AED 3.3 billion of capital, predominantly scaling up the Aldar investment platform. Notable transactions include: first, AED 362 million for the 40% stake in Al Maryah Tower, Talal referred to earlier; second, over AED 1.1 billion in Industrial & Logistics assets, acquisitions; and lastly, AED 722 million to acquire an additional 17.45% stake in Aldar's estates, increasing our ownership to 82.55%. Looking ahead, the majority of capital deployment will continue to be focused on income-generating assets across our core segments and across emerging growth sectors. Turning to Slide 7 for updates on our Develop-to-Hold strategy, which, as a reminder, is focused on the development of prime assets for retention in the income-generating portfolio and is an important growth driver over the medium term. In '25, we completed and transferred four projects Aldar Investment business valued at nearly AED 1 billion. We also added seven new projects valued at the combined AED 4.4 billion, which included three affordable and mid-market residential projects. The Yas Business Park and the planned introduction of King's College Wimbledon school. During the year, we executed CapEx of AED 2.1 billion across ongoing projects. This was below our original guidance, primarily reflecting timing shifts and delays across a few projects which have resulted in the revised delivery schedules as you can see in the presentation. Importantly, these are timing-related impacts and the underlying project economics and strategic rationale remains unchanged. The pipeline now stands at AED 17.2 billion for delivery over the next 4 years, which will ensure a healthy balance of asset classes across the Aldar Investment portfolio. Please refer to the appendix of this deck for a detailed breakdown on the D-Hold pipeline by segment and total CapEx expected. We plan to continue deploying significant CapEx into our D-Hold strategy as we add more projects in the coming periods. Finally, as a reminder, please note that this D-Hold pipeline is addictive -- is additive, sorry, to Aldar's ongoing acquisition strategy and is expected to significantly boost recurring income streams and long-term capital appreciation. Slide 8. The performance of Aldar Development in '25, which was marked by 11 successful new launches and strong sales of existing inventory in the UAE. Full year group sales increased 21% year-on-year to reach AED 40.6 billion, surpassing the upper end of our guidance. This included UAE sales of AED 35.5 billion, which were up 25%. Revenue increased 58% to AED 24.8 billion, while the development EBITDA increased 67% to AED 7.2 billion, also exceeding guidance. Group backlog grew to AED 71.7 billion, and we expect these elevated levels to grow further as we continue to grow our sales. Most of this growth came from the UAE backlog, which accounted for AED 61 billion. The next slide goes through the UAE performance in detail. But before that, a brief word on our international platforms, which performed well in 2025. In Egypt, SODIC delivered its highest ever full year EBITDA and strong sales momentum including a highly successful December launch at Mostakbal City. And the U.K., London Square continued to scale through five development launches and five site acquisitions during the year. Turning to Slide #9, you will see the position of our UAE development performance where Abu Dhabi accounted for 71% of sales and Dubai for 25%. For another year, the demographic mix of our customer base remained broadly consistent, underscoring the sustainability of demand. UAE nationals represented 23% of sales value whereas Presidents, expatriates represented 51% and overseas buyers 26%, reflecting the UAE's continued and broad-based appeal as a place to live, work and invest. The international customer base is varied and reflects the wide appeal of the UAE as the real estate investment market. This performance reflects the strength of our global digitally driven sales platform which continues to enhance our reach across international buyer segments. Cash collection remains strong, reaching AED 15.4 billion in 2025, reflecting strength of sales and steady pace of delivery. Turning to Slide #10, Aldar Investment delivered strong growth in 2025, supported by both organic performance and strategic acquisitions. Full year revenue increased 16% year-on-year to AED 8 billion while adjusted EBITDA was up 20% to AED 3.2 billion within guidance. To give you a more accurate picture of underlying performance, excluding commercial disposal and divestments of strata units, adjusted EBITDA for the year rose 23%. Finally, organic adjusted EBITDA grew to AED 2.9 billion, also within the upper end of guidance. On Slide 11, you will see further detail on investment properties specifically. The portfolio continued to deliver strong growth in 2025 with adjusted EBITDA rising 22% year-on-year to AED 2 billion. Excluding disposal and divestments, adjusted EBITDA increased by 27%. Performance was supported by portfolio-wide occupancy of 96% alongside continued rental uplifts and contributions from the newly acquired Masdar City residential and commercial assets. Commercial adjusted EBITDA reached AED 847 million, up 21% year-on-year and excluding disposals, the increase was 31%. Performance was supported by contributions from 2024 acquisitions of 6 Falak and Masdar City assets and a strong increase in rental rates during the period with portfolio occupancy now at 100%. It is also worth noting that Yas Place came online during the year and has started to contribute to the bottom line. Residential adjusted EBITDA increased by 29% to AED 510 million, supported by contributions from the Masdar City assets and the rental growth across the portfolio that is 96% occupied. During the period, we generated AED 77 million from strata sales in line with our capital recycling strategy. Excluding strata unit divestments, the portfolio's adjusted EBITDA grew by 33%. Retail adjusted EBITDA rose 14% year-on-year to AED 553 million with an average occupancy at 90%. Yas Mall reported strong momentum with an occupancy of 98%, driving 9% growth in footfall, 8% growth in tenant sales. Other key assets were also close to full occupancy, including recently developed -- redeveloped Al Hamra Mall, which reopened in 2024 and Jimi Mall in September 2025. Yas Golf collection and Noya Retail, both being D-Hold assets were also completed in 2025 with the latter now being 100% leased. Industrial & Logistics adjusted EBITDA rose 72% to AED 106 million supported by the contribution of the Al Markaz and KEZAD assets as well as solid leasing at the expanded Abu Dhabi business hub. On Slide 12, you will see that our hospitality, education and estates platforms continued to deliver solid performance while advancing key strategic initiatives. The hospitality portfolio maintained 72% occupancy in 2025 and achieved a 12% increase in ADRs along with a 10% rise in RevPAR. Performance was supported by strong demand in the fourth quarter, including increased activity along major events and continued strength and tourism flows into the UAE. Adjusted EBITDA reached AED 372 million, up 6% despite the number of properties being partially offline during the year as part of our AED 1.5 billion transformation program. The education platform recorded adjusted EBITDA of AED 274 million, up 3% year-on-year. This includes some preopening costs associated with new schools. However, underlying performance has been strong, supported by enrollment growth, fee uplifts and the contributions from recently opened schools, including Noya British School, which opened in '24 as well as additional schools that commenced operations in 2025, which are Yasmina American School and Muna British Academy. Aldar Estates continued to benefit from the increased scale and synergies across this offering with adjusted EBITDA rising 19% to AED 481 million. Performance was driven by contract renewals, new mandates and continued efficiency gains across facilities, management, property management and community management. Turning to Slide 13, and our key balance sheet indicators. We continue to take a countercyclical approach to funding and liquidity management aimed at reinforcing financial resilience and building a robust capital buffer to support long-term growth. In 2025, we raised AED 18.7 billion in capital, including significant capital market transactions, characterized by strong demand and favorable pricing. This funding included a AED 9 billion sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, $2.3 billion in Hybrid Bonds and Green Sukuks issuances, including caps. In 2026, we followed up with a $1 billion hybrid achieving one of the tightest spreads for a corporate issuance of this type in the CEMEA region. This issuance was assigned a Baa3 rating by Moody's 1 notch below Aldar's Corporate Rating of Baa2 with a stable outlook reflecting our robust financial position, strong liquidity and our strong standing as a strategic partner to the Abu Dhabi government. In summary, we have maintained a prudent leverage profile and strong interest coverage while further strengthening liquidity. As at the end of 2025, free and unrestricted cash stood at AED 14.2 billion and committed undrawn facilities at AED 16.4 billion. The average senior debt maturity stood at 5 years with no material refinancing requirements in the near term. Looking ahead, we will continue to deploy capital in a disciplined manner, maintaining prudent leverage, strengthening recurring income and aligning our funding strategy with long-term value creation. Turning to Slide 14. As a leading UAE real estate platform, sustainability is embedded in how we operate and plan for the long term. Our best practice approach and ongoing progress is reflected in Aldar's status amongst the highest ranked real estate companies globally in 2025. Aldar's ESG rating was upgraded to A by MSCI. And in July, the company was added to the FTSE4Good Index Series, reflecting broad improvements across environmental, social and governance practices. And finally, the latest Dow Jones Sustainability Index saw Aldar score increased from 61 to 67, placing the company 1st regionally and in the top 10% globally for the industry. Turning to Slide 15, you will see that we have set very clear and detailed targets to guide our action on sustainability in 2025. We continue to drive significant progress on a number of fronts. For example, our ongoing retrofit program contributed to a 9% reduction in energy intensity for assets in our portfolio during 2025. And in development, Aldar is embedding sustainability specifications, accelerating energy-efficient measures and integrating resilience, considerations at the highest -- at the earliest stages of planning and design. All of our new developments launched in 2025, achieved a 2-star Fitwel rating. And in construction, we reduced imported carbon by 21%, and recycled 97% of waste. I'll now hand back to Talal to go through our 5-year corporate strategy and how we are progressing against our growth drivers.

Thank you, Faisal. Let's turn to Slide 16 in Aldar's Group Vision for 2030. Having transformed significantly in scale since 2020, Vision 2030 was launched at the beginning of 2025. The strategy is designed to sustain our accelerated growth trajectory and strengthen Aldar's position as the regional real estate champion. We have had a good start on its execution and remain firmly on track. Our business is closely aligned with the UAE's dynamic economic transformation, which is driving population growth and demand across diverse real estate asset classes. Building on our proven delivery track record, we have set a clear and ambitious target to reach AED 20 billion in annual net profit by 2030, while targeting a return on invested capital in excess of 16%. This will be underpinned by balanced growth across our two core platforms with the ambition of targeting a 50-50 EBITDA mix between development and recurring income generating businesses. We remain focused on achieving significant value creation, delivering progressively higher dividends, while maintaining our investment grade credit profile. Our strategy is anchored on three strategic pillars: product excellence, signature experiences and capital management. We will continue to invest in our people as well as digital and AI transformation to deliver operational excellence. Sustainability remains integral to our growth as we continue to progress towards our net zero ambition. Turning now to Slide 17, which outlines our core business growth drivers. With Aldar Development, our priority is to further strengthen leadership as the union's destination builder delivering exceptional experiences across our communities. 2025, we activated Fahid Island and unveiled plans for North Al Maryah Island, which will both provide multiyear runway of growth and opportunity. At the same time, we are pursuing disciplined land bank replenishment, expansion across customer segments, and continued diversification of our product offering. We are also enhancing customer engagement through continued investment in digital platforms and sales channels, while expanding our global brokerage network to drive cross-selling and synergies across markets. Aldar Investment remains focused on the disciplined expansion of the core real estate portfolio through M&A and our Develop-to-Hold strategy, which we continue to scale recurring income and sector diversification. Alongside this, we are acting on emerging opportunities in areas such as staff accommodation, affordable housing, senior living and last mile logistics. In Vision 2030 we set a clear intention to manage third-party capital to create additional income streams and co-investment opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, we are excited to have launched Aldar Capital in ADGM and we see the future funds as fee-generating vehicles, but also opportunities for collaboration across the Aldar platforms. Capital recycling will remain a key lever with non-core and mature assets redeployed into higher return opportunities while ensuring platform readiness for future monetization. As one of the region's largest and most sophisticated real estate platforms, we have embarked on an exciting phase of growth with clear ambition and strong momentum. I will now hand back to Faisal to take you through our guidance.

On Slide 18, we set out our '26 and medium-term guidance, reflecting the visibility we have from our backlog, our launch pipeline and our expanding recurring income base. Let us start with guidance for 2026. At the group level, we are targeting a adjusted EBITDA of AED 12.7 billion to AED 13.3 billion and in terms of capital allocation we foresee M&A deployment of AED 3 billion to AED 4 billion, Develop-to-Hold CapEx of another AED 3 billion to AED 4 billion. For Aldar Development, we continue to see very positive sentiment in the UAE real estate market into 2026 and remain very optimistic about sustaining elevated sales run rates, supported by growth in Egypt and the U.K. Therefore, we are guiding group development sales between AED 45 billion to AED 49 billion and EBITDA of AED 9.5 billion to AED 10 billion, of which our project management services platform, we are targeting an EBITDA of AED 0.9 billion to AED 1 billion. And for the Development segment gross profit, as we promised in the UAE specifically, we continue to push up our margins and we are guiding between 37% to 39%. For Aldar Investment, we are guiding for a adjusted EBITDA of AED 3.7 billion to AED 3.9 billion of which M&A contribution is between AED 0.14 billion to AED 0.18 billion. Given the strength of our performance in 2025, we have rolled forward our 3-year guidance from a higher base. As a result, we are reiterating attractive growth across the group over the next 3 years reflecting continued confidence in the scale, momentum and visibility across our platforms. Group adjusted EBITDA to expand at the CAGR up 25% to 30% with M&A deployment and Develop-to-Hold CapEx of AED 9 billion to AED 12 billion each over the 3 years. For Aldar Development, we see EBITDA growing at a CAGR of 30% to 35% over the next 3 years. And Aldar Investment's adjusted EBITDA is expected to expand at a CAGR of 18% to 20%. Overall, this guidance reflects our confidence and the increasing scale and momentum of our platforms,t he market opportunity and the balance sheet capacity to continue investing behind growth. With that, we conclude today's presentation, and welcome your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question from the phone lines comes from Rahul Bajaj from Citibank.

Rahul Bajaj from Citi here. Congratulations on the very strong set of results. My question is on the Dubai JV, which you announced recent -- in the last week basically. And just trying to understand how comfortable are you in terms of the upcoming supply in Dubai and its impact on pricing level and the customer demand when you are launching these new projects in Dubai? Do you not expect any material negative impact from the sector-wide supply coming in Dubai? That is my question.

Thank you very much. So I think when we went into Dubai a few years ago, a lot of people asked us the same question at the time. Albeit the market has continued to perform, the overall market has continued to perform well, we took a specific bet on the -- what we call the Hamdan Zayed highway corridor where we launched our three projects: Haven, Athlon and The Wilds. And we were very successful in building single-family home, communities centered around lifestyle and wellness with the schools and parks and so on. We still see a lot of growth in that same corridor. This time, we're tapping into a new segment, which is the mid-market segment, where we see a lot of demand for townhouses. I think you really need to peel the onion and your question is very valid. But as a market leader, you go out and you find pockets of opportunity where we think you can make the market and go against that. So what you're saying is correct in certain pockets of the market. I think, we're playing in a different segment. We are a long-term investor. It's about getting access to large plots of land at the right economics, which create a lot of value. We're performing well ahead of the business plan on the first three projects, and we think we still have the opportunity to create even more value in the new JV. We also have tapped into a slightly different segment over there with a smaller part of the overall transaction where it's going to be our first beachfront property. In Dubai, obviously, it's been a very successful launch of Palm Jebel Ali banking of the success of Palm Jumeirah. And we think we'll also be able to trade really well and be amongst the first developers developing [Technical Difficulty] and we are conscious of what's happening in the market. But we'll also think that we will be able to extract the right value. Sorry, if you have a follow-up.

Our next question is from Taher Safieddine with JPMorgan.

Congrats on a solid set of results. Just a few questions from my side. Maybe the first is just on Aldar Development. For this Dubai Holding, a new JV, can we understand just the economics, is this land owned by Dubai Holding and you guys are sharing the profits and you'll handle everything from A to Z? Or should we expect some land payments there? If you can just maybe clarify on that point, please?

All right. You want us to answer one by one? Or are you going to go to the other questions, Tahar?

Yes, maybe the other question is just on the -- also the recent announcement in terms of the Abu Dhabi land replenishment. I'm assuming these are new land plots, right, over and above what you have. Is there a way just for us to understand from a visibility perspective? I mean, you already have existing land in Yas and Saadiyat. Can you help us just understand how much GDV potential you have within Aldar within Yas and Saadiyat? And the reason I'm asking is because, clearly the Abu Dhabi market had a very strong performance in '25 and your investment zones where you have a significant market share continues to command a very healthy trend. So maybe if you can share some color on what kind of potential does Yas and Saadiyat have maybe from a GDV perspective, will help the visibility for us. So that would be my second question. And the third and final question is just on the medium-term guidance that you provided all the way up until FY '28. Does this medium-term guidance takes into consideration the full deployment of M&A and D-Hold CapEx? I mean, would you need the whole AED 9 billion to AED 12 billion each to deliver on the FY '28 guidance or that will be over and above what you have already factored in?

I'll take the first two easy questions and I'll leave the difficult one for Faisal. Okay. So, on Dubai Holding, the first one, it's similar to the first JV, Dubai Holding are -- own these large parcels of land, which has been our go-to-market strategy in Dubai. They contribute the land into the JV. They don't contribute equity. There is a mix of fixed payments, which are predominantly back-ended, so 5 to 7 years in payments. So, but the majority of the returns come through a profit share. So, it's a mix of 7-year payment plans plus a profit share. Aldar does all of the design development, sales, project management, and we charge the joint venture fees for providing those services. And there's a waterfall mechanism that's there. But it's similar economics to -- a similar structure to the first JV and then each one is customized based on the economics of that particular plot. So there's not much equity that's required. The risk is spread. Even if there is a cycle, this will see through that given the size of these plots. And we've indicated the prospective GDV from that of around AED 38 billion. On the land replenishment, which is around AED 23 billion of GDV, this was land that we didn't own. There were some privately owned parcels within the destinations. Some of them were allocated, some were acquired many years ago and some are adjacent to our destinations, but they're all within that growth corridor, which includes, Yas, Fahid, and then there's Jebel that's developed by third-party and then Saadiyat and then now the extension of that into Al Maryah. And that's really that important growth corridor, which I think is the next Investor Day, we'll be able to share more details on how we're focused on that, and that's our premium growth corridor. And then we're also now focused on a new affordable growth corridor, which we'll be talking about more in future times. But other than that, land replenishment of AED 23 billion, we have well over AED 100 billion GDV between Yas to Saadiyat. When you include Fahid, that number is closer to AED 150 billion. When you include Al Maryah, that number is closer to the AED 150 billion of GDV in that area. And the idea is that we have to bring different products to the market, single multifamily home, waterfront, luxury, ultra-luxury at different times. That's the number of launches that we've had, so 30 launches in the last 2 years. Different products, different price points at different parts of those destinations, and we're going to continue. So, we still have enough to fuel the engine in those destinations, but that's why we want to open up new destinations, complement that with Dubai, not bring too much to the market in a particular period.

And Taher, I think the message that we have been iterating in Dubai, it's a competitive market. So we have to compete to get land. And in Abu Dhabi, we are in a very competitive position to continue replenishing our land on an ongoing basis. We have a strong relationship with the government. We drive the key flagship destinations in Abu Dhabi. So land replenishment in Abu Dhabi is not a concern for us, and we'll continue doing the same. And as far, your third question on the guidance. So let's start with Development. I think with Development, with the backlog, we have very good foresight into our earnings into the future. And as long as we can sustain our development sales run rate, which we have very strong conviction that we can. And we believe that Abu Dhabi continues to be untapped, and we're just starting to scratch the surface compared to Dubai. Dubai is still probably 6x, 7x the size of Abu Dhabi. So the guidance there, I think we're very confident with. And then on the Investment side, organically, the business is growing. Now we underwrite somewhat conservatively. We do not underwrite 5%, 10% rental growth on an ongoing basis. But then when the upside comes as we already have a AED 20 billion D-Hold portfolio that's going to continue growing, and that's going to complement the growth in the future. Is M&A part of it? Yes. But we do probability weighted on the M&A, like we don't assume that full AED 3 billion to AED 4 billion is deployed at the beginning of the year, every year. And you've seen that this year, right? You guys were challenging us in terms of our deployment. We were somewhat delayed in terms of deploying, but again, the message we keep iterating will continue being disciplined, and we will deploy into the right assets. And as you've seen, we've met the guidance without really investing the full amount early in the year. It's really happened towards the end of the year.

Okay. And just maybe one follow-up on the deployment. I mean, the numbers remain AED 3 billion to AED 4 billion per year. Are there enough targets in the UAE to deliver AED 9 billion to AED 12 billion over 3 years? And I mean, the reason I'm asking is just maybe to look more specifically from a segment perspective, I mean, you seem to be in a very good position on the commercial side. You've invested on the residential side for the first time in a couple of years, also the Industrial & Logistics. Is there a new segment? I just want to understand like the GAV today on the recurring portfolio, how will this change in 3 years? Should we see more logistics? Should we see more commercial? Just want to understand high level, how should we think about the sector breakdown?

So we want to have a balanced view across most of those assets. Some grow at faster paces than others. A few years ago, we were not building much commercial. We've now accelerated that with a lot of acquisitions, including the ADGM Tower, the tower in DIFC, 6 Falak in Dubai, as well as a large Develop-to-Hold portfolio across Yas, Saadiyat, and now at Al Maryah. Residential for a while, again, with prices moving up, we were not as active as we were. Right now, we're complementing that with a lot of Develop-to-Hold. So depending on the opportunity and the market dynamics, we swap between M&A and D-Hold where it makes sense. A lot of the D-Hold is happening in our core destinations. So the ability -- so for example, the more you build on Yas, whether it's also rental product, that benefits your mall, benefits your hotels and so on. So the overall synergies are even greater. With M&A, there are smaller tickets. So you saw we bought the KEZAD assets. So we had the buyout of the Aldar Estates platform. We had the buyout of Al Maryah Tower. They add up Al Markaz. But then once in a while, every 1.5, 2 years, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, you get a large transaction. Like you remember clearly, when we did the TDIC transaction at the time that was hugely accretive to shareholders and not many people at the time could write $1 billion check or when we did the ADGM towers, which was $1.2 billion at the time. There's still a lot of assets that are in the private domain. There's still a lot of assets that are owned by the sovereigns. You've seen how active we are in partnering with these sovereigns. These 60-40 JVs that were on the retail and stuff have options for us to buy out like what we did in Al Maryah. So, these are now creating opportunities for us to deploy in assets that we know and that we manage. Until we do that, we're charging them fees for doing that. So that's in terms of the opportunity set. But today, we have growth opportunities in residential, in commercial. In hotels, we were previously focused on refurbishing our existing hotels. We now have a growth portfolio in the hospitality. In retail right now, it's repositioning. A lot of the new growth is coming in community retail. And then we're deploying more into education and logistics. Logistics across, as you said, last mile to self-storage to warehouses to light industrial. So it's a carefully well-disciplined strategy. As Abu Dhabi's economy is going, there's opportunities to grow across all of those asset classes. And wherever that makes sense for us to drive value for our shareholders, we will pursue them.

Our next question is from Stephen Bramley-Jackson with HSBC.

Some of my questions have actually already been asked, but perhaps another couple. In terms of the JV with Dubai Holdings, in terms of extended JV that you've announced, in the last few years, there's a little bit of concern now that you're overpaying for land to grow. Can you share with us any of the sort of underwriting parameters? I don't know whether you want to talk about that in a margin context, just this deal alone. But how would you get investors comfortable, obviously, all our investors, but also the Street that you're still progressing on decent terms, because people are getting a bit concerned.

Sorry, the last part of your question, sorry? I heard the first part, just the last few words. Sorry.

Yes. I just want -- yes, it's essentially this -- the most recent JV you've -- you've extended JV that you've announced. How do we get comfortable that you're not overpaying for land? Are you able to share any of the underwriting characteristics? Just I appreciate probably not a lot of it, but some of it, just to give investors a degree of comfort. I don't know whether you want to talk about that in margins or something different, but...

To answer you -- in multiple things, Stephen. Great question. So one, we hope that there's the trust and the credibility of the management team that when we do things, we do them in the best interest of creating value for our shareholders as we've been demonstrating for the last 10 years. We know the market relatively well, and we pass on 10x the number of deals that we close. So the market doesn't see all of that. And there are certain geographies that we've grown, and then we haven't announced land replenishment, even in Dubai for 2 or 3 years or certain areas of Dubai where we've been offered lots of opportunities. We get every week. And where it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. And by the way, many -- not many, every deal that we've turned down, someone else has bought, maybe even at a higher price. That doesn't make it right in our humble opinion. And then people start resorting to other methods of trying to squeeze out more by adding GFA, by going to a mix that's more skewed towards studios or whatever it may be, right? With us -- for us, it's really about creating an overall community. Land for us should be in the 10% to 15% of GDV, where it starts to become 20% and 25% or anything close to that, we pass. The new JV is within those ranges. We're targeting margins of around the 30% mark over there. So those are two, sort of, interesting metrics to show you at the entry level in terms of GDV and the thing. And again, these are projects given the scale that you're going to see through a cycle. Also, the reason that we can get that because you can't compare that on every deal is the scale. We're taking very large plots of land that are internally relatively virgin, right, in terms of nascent, in terms of its infrastructure, its design. So, our ability to come out and extract more value rather than buying a service plot in a high-growth corridor, high dense, which is where people have been typically. I mean, whether they're overpaying or paying the right price, I'll leave that judgment to everyone else. But it's not the price point that we think makes sense for us, and it's not the kind of scale that we bring to the market. So, other people have not been focused on coming and buying a 2 million or 3 million square meter plot of land and putting in a lot of infrastructure, building the schools, doing the parks. But that's where we extract value, and that's where we've gone into what's a very competitive market, probably one of the most competitive in the world. Yet, we were able to perform really well and sell out almost all the inventory that we've released to the market. So, I hope I've added some color and answered your question, Steve.

Okay. All right. So I've got a few others, if I may, just quickly. LTV or actually no, sorry, gross debt to total assets, you're up 400 basis points, F '25 plays F '24. Where are you headed on the basis of what you're committed to? Can you give us a sense as to where that leverage ratio runs up to on the basis of committed capital?

We hold ourselves to a higher benchmark. So while you see those numbers, we manage the metrics related to our investment-grade credit rating, which are more restrictive and stringent. If you look at those numbers, I'd say we have capacity to go up somewhere around 3x net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA. But what you notice we've been doing lately is raising structured equity. So those hybrid notes that we've been issuing are extremely accretive to shareholders. So while they are 100% debt from an accounting basis and they end up becoming tax deductible, they get 50% equity credit rating. So they might seem higher here. But from a rating point of view, we get that 50% credit, which you are not seeing. So, we have a lot of room to grow in terms of debt, but we will continue in a countercyclical basis to strengthen our balance sheet and create as much buffer as possible in case there's a shock to the system.

Okay. All right. And then look, just two or three just, sort of, quick final questions. Nationality, who -- which nationality bought the bed mansion, just curiosity.

I can't go to jail, Steve, I respect my customer. We give trends. We don't give specifics yet, but we will make sure when you buy, you sign an NDA that we can announce your nationality, you are live on our investor calls.

I'm looking forward to that day. Okay. Secondly, Egypt. I mean, Egypt for us as a business in capital markets has become increasingly interesting, I think, over the last 12 to 18 months, people are more inquisitive about Egypt. Investors are looking more close to Egypt. We're getting more incumbent on Egypt. Capital movements, that's a bit easier, isn't it now? Is there anything that you're noticing similar on the ground in terms of nature of purchases or transaction activity or anything like that in Egypt?

Look, I mean, last year, most developers in EGP had record sales. Prices and pounds are obviously higher. What's interesting is prices in dollar terms are also higher, slightly, which is I think a good trend. Recently, I think it's the weakening of the dollar has also just been an interesting thing and helped stabilize the situation. So, the pound has improved a bit to the dollar, which has a big impact on sentiment over there. And obviously, I think geopolitics which I think in the last period over there, given the surrounding nature of what's happening in that area, where there's been more interest, particularly from domestic buyers, Egyptians. We do see foreign buyers. Our reading of the majority of the foreign buyers are actually, I would say, 70%, 80% are Egyptians with foreign passports rather than the kind of FDI nationality spread that you would see, for example, in the UAE. But even that number is the overall number of foreign passport holders, whatever their origins are, sort of, is less than 10%. And then that gets subdivided. So it's predominantly in the Egyptian market, but more Egyptians who are outside Egypt in the last year have been flowing in. I think compared to the year before, when the pound was, I would say, a bit more volatile. So I think that was an interesting thing. But at the same time, we've been bringing in different products. We have been expanding our sales platforms. Again, the way we've been managing that business is we're not deploying any fresh equity in over there. So we've been relying on similar to the UAE, doing land replenishment through joint ventures. There, it's a bit of a different model. There, they do more revenue shares rather than profit share, just the way that, that market works with minimal actual payments upfront. It's just mostly down to that revenue share. But then it's about releasing that inventory year-over-year. So the business continues to perform well. We were very disciplined in the last few years about overpaying for land, land that was being offered in dollar denominations, which we passed and everything we've done has been in EGP. And the business has performed well. The stock that we -- that's how we monitor the business, and most stocks have re-rated. There's definitely been more interest in -- after all the hot money left maybe a couple of years ago. So we just came back last week. And it seems like they're heading the right. Now there's still a lot that needs to be done, I think, and it's still predominantly an economy that's funded by the government. But it's difficult to read completely because I think the size of the black market over there is difficult to put your finger on, but that's -- but there's a lot of cash in the system. That's as much light as I can probably give.

Okay. And then sorry, I don't want to hold the call, but just very last question. In the U.K., unless I'm misreading the slides, you put AED 393 million. Is that right? AED 78.5 million last year on land plots. I mean, that looks to -- yes, so that looks to me to be, I don't know, 1 hectare, 1.5 hectare depending on quite where you've got the plots, 3, maybe even 4 Westminster Avenue. Just curious, how are you getting these -- who's selling the plots? And within the vendors, are you sort of doing deals where you're taking perhaps Middle East investors out of London and quick procuring them into this region? Are you doing any of those? Or is it just -- I'm just curious as to how you're getting those plots. I know it's a buyer's market now.

Yes. So, I think on the land part, it has been a buyer's market. When we first bought London Square, we're looking at opportunities, and we ended up buying plots of land that we saw at maybe 15%, 20% lower than were first offered to us 12 months in, given certain macro headwinds and a number of developers. We saw there was an exodus of a number of Chinese and also some Russian-funded developers that wanted to exit the market. Some had, think, everything we bought, exception of maybe one site that has partial planning approval, has planning approval, which reduces our cycle time of going to the market, which our margins are very sensitive, obviously, to that. So we've not been taking stuff that has long planning approvals. In terms of size, you mentioned, I need to come back to you on that one, because each one had a different size and different denominations to what we do over here. But we can shed some more light maybe on our Investor Day and share where some of these sites are. But we think we bought them at decent rates. And the way that market works for us is, it's broken down into three verticals: private sales. We have our BTR. So we forward sell to pension funds and insurance agencies and others. And then we're one of the few developers that has a registered affordable developer called Square Roots under London Square, which allows us to tap into money from the local councils and borrowers that help fund that. And sometimes we even add affordable from some adjacent developers and stuff that they have. So that business model helps us go to market where other people cannot unlock planning approval through that. In terms of buyers, it's spread. I mean, we have Middle Eastern buyers buying in London, and that was part of the revenue synergy more than the cost synergy of buying London Square. And now, we have our customer base in London who are also buying over here. And obviously, we've seen a lot of high net worth and ultra-high net worth relocate from London to the UAE. So there is a bit of cross-selling that we're benefiting from in both markets. But obviously, I mean, the UAE market is quite hot at the moment. So maybe there's more inflows coming in over here, but good sales coming out of London as well. We hope for more.

Our next question is from Mohamad Haidar with Arqaam Capital.

Two very quick questions, please. So you replenished a lot of land in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in '25. Do you have similar plans for Ras Al Khaimah when it comes to community developments going forward? And two, when it comes to development margins, you're guiding for significant growth, 300, 400 basis points. Is this because Dubai is becoming a bigger portion of the backlog or because prices are going up in Abu Dhabi?

So on land replenishment, Ras Al Khaimah has always been a long-term play for us. We've been very successful in our project over there in partnership with Nikki Beach and others at Marjan and also our Aldar Investment assets, the hotels and mall, which are performing very well. We are actively looking at that market. I think they're investing a lot on the tourism side. But back to Steve's earlier question, it's about finding the right plots of land that work. There was a lot of plots that, for example, sometimes some lack scale, sometimes some are their own price. So it's about finding the right opportunity. And we've been very successful so far. And if we can find the right opportunity, we'll be able to continue to grow. We haven't just locked anything as of yet. And obviously, we'll keep you updated once we do. In terms of our margins, I think there's no single reason. It's us overall managing our supply chain better. Prices are increasing. Obviously, with the scale, we can optimize on some strategic sourcing. We can optimize on some of our sales and marketing costs and other things. There has been a creep up of construction prices. It is a -- someone said it was a buyer's market. It's a contractors market today. There's not enough contractors that are out there. So, it is a struggle, and there is some inflationary movements that are there that are more based on just demand outweighing supply on things, but it's things that we can manage given the scale that we have. So, our ability to go out there and strategically source certain materials and commodities, one, to either control the price or number two, for security of supply. So, all of those things together, but there has been price escalation in both. And our core market has been Abu Dhabi. And there's been quite a bit of price escalation. So with that, the team is determined to continue to sustainably push up our margins in line with the guidance, Mohamad.

And congrats again.

And we have a follow-up from Rahul Bajaj at Citibank.

Rahul Bajaj from Citi. Quick follow-up questions from me. A couple of actually questions on the fourth quarter trends specifically. So, I see steep escalation in direct cost and G&A-related expenses in fourth quarter compared to the previous few quarters run rate. Just wanted to understand to what extent is this seasonal pattern or there are structural, sort of, changes to the cost element. So that is my first question. And the second one, again, on fourth quarter trends, I see very strong international sales, and you were talking about London and Egypt earlier. Just wanted to understand what is driving the sharp sales increase in the fourth quarter? Is it Egypt or London or both? And my final, final question, if I may, please. The competitive backdrop in Abu Dhabi. Have you seen any change in the competitive backdrop over the last year, 1.5 years in Abu Dhabi? Are there more players from outside or homegrown players present in the market in some way or you're not seeing much of a change there? So those are my questions.

This is Faisal. So no, I wouldn't take any increase in SG&A as a recurring run rate. The one thing which comes into Q4 is our provisions. And the reason for that jump in provisions is we put the customer at the core of everything we do. And if you've seen the 2030 strategy that we've announced, one of the three pillars is signature experiences and customers. And we strongly believe in building a brand. So we have taken some provisions to account for some community enhancements that we want to do across our portfolio in Abu Dhabi that we believe will significantly pay off in the future as we continue building the brand here in the city. Then I think there was a follow-up question.

Second question. Egypt definitely had a spike of sales in Q4. London was add one as well. But then we had some very successful launches in the UAE, and we've started again 2026 on a good note as well. In fact, we have a launch event today on Saadiyat. So I wouldn't say there was anything much to read into, maybe a bit of lumpiness in Egypt, because we were able to -- we launched a new project and stuff over there. So they don't have as many projects running at the same time. But nothing extra to read into other than us just bringing in more product at all these times. The third question...

Third question was around competition in Abu Dhabi, yes.

So yes, it's definitely been more attractive to many developers. We've seen developers from Dubai coming to Abu Dhabi. We've seen international developers, some boutique developers come in. We think it's a healthy sign of the market, not to be dominated by 1 or 2. We maintain our leadership position given our high-quality land bank, our brand, our focus on customer. So competition is healthy. I think it's good competition, and there's some -- been some relatively good players that come in, but the overall size of the market has increased. I think the other positive is that all of these guys are hopefully going to widen the customer base. Everyone is now marketing Abu Dhabi. I still think what Abu Dhabi has to offer today in terms of its lifestyle, its infrastructure, the airport, the quality of living in terms of traffic and safety, but then as well as the entertainment, the culture, all the stuff that you guys know in terms of the museums, I still think it's undersold. And it's one of the world's best kept secrets. And I think all of these guys out there help build up that brand equity of Abu Dhabi. And we're just seeing more and more interest by the day. And I think we just need to continue to deliver to that customer journey. So yes, it's there. It's healthy, makes us work hard and hopefully, we'll continue to deliver sustainable returns.

Let me take a couple of questions on the messages. So there's a question from Jameel. Aldar Development medium-term EBITDA, CAGR, do you expect -- do you expect EBITDA growth to be more loaded into the near term given your strong presale guidance? Is there scope for meaningful margin upside? Or will your EBITDA trajectory be driven primarily by presales and revenue recognition? So a few things, if this was not obvious. If you look at our guidance, so we have extended the guidance with a similar CAGR of growth despite us growing the business from an EBITDA basis, 46% year-on-year, and the Development business has obviously exceeded that. So the message you should take from that is we are growing stronger than what we had been guiding last year. That's one. The second thing on the development business, you would have probably seen in the news that we have awarded AED 66 billion worth of contracts to contractors. Now AED 45 billion was to the government. The rest was to Aldar Development. This is our UAE property development and sale business. So you should expect the run rate of our development business, obviously, to continue growing. Will it be more front-loaded? Not necessarily, but you will continue seeing that very strong CAGR that we are guiding in the business, and it's not driven by presales. Now there's a bit of catch-up when we have some inventory and the project is awarded, but presales in general do not flow through to the P&L until those projects are actually awarded and start construction. What are the main reasons behind project delays of the D-Hold pipeline? A number of things. So delays in design, some delays in award. There's a bit of best use discussion that we've been having on those projects. I would say that the projections that we're showing you are on the conservative side, but we are working very aggressively to catch up and bring those significantly earlier than what we are showing you here. On the Development segment, what percent of your total GDV under development is experiencing delays? And how do you expect this to change? I don't think there's a scientific way of answering this question. I think what matters is, we will -- we have very strong conviction to meet guidance. I think that's what matters, how we deliver it is our business. And as I've noted again, on the awards, on the value of work done that we've been able to deliver last year, which we expect to grow this year, we're very confident that we'll consistently deliver that growth and run rate. CapEx and M&A guidance, including land replenishment, how are you budgeting for land bank replenishment annually? The development business, we intentionally do not guide for CapEx for land for a number of reasons. Land is done through JVs. Not all of them have explicit payment plans modeled in. A lot of them have the payments as part of the profit waterfall in the future. And if they do have payment plans such as the JV with Dubai Holding, they tend to be very back ended, at least 5 to 7 years in the future. So no, from a land replenishment point of view, capital is not a constraint whatsoever. Could you provide more details on the provisions booked? I think I've already answered that question. Have you changed anything in the payment schedule? Not at all, and we're going to continue maintaining that discipline. Despite competition coming in and going lenient both on prices and payment plans, we will not. Because we are targeting a higher quality book of customers, and we'll maintain in doing that and customers will flock to quality, quality being Aldar, again, as a franchise that we've been able to build and the strategic land bank that we hold in Abu Dhabi, which we believe has a very strong competitive advantage. Can you please shed light on the profit share percentages for Dubai JV? It's as the previous JV, it's a 50-50 JV. However, we get fees for sales and development management.

Thank you. We have no further questions on the call at this time. So, I will go ahead and wrap up. Thank you very much for joining.

Thank you very much for all of your trust and for signing in and wish you guys a great year ahead.

This concludes today's conference call, and you may now disconnect your lines.