The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) is interested in the acquisition of high-quality real estate assets in European, Asia-Pacific and the US markets, SOFAZ Executive Director Shahmar Movsumov said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
He said that creation of a portfolio, in which the developed markets, as well as various types of real estate will be widely represented, is one of the main directions of the strategy in this area, which means the continuation of investments in this sphere.
“The purpose of investing into real estate is making a profit through consistently high payments for rent and purchase of high-quality assets with a huge potential of the price growth in the long run,” said Movsumov. “At the moment, the Fund owns commercial, industrial and hotel real estate in central business districts of major cities, and our immediate plans include building up our presence in the above mentioned areas.”
He also noted that the SOFAZ began investing in real estate funds, which also suggest an increase in diversification along with high profitability.
“Thus, SOFAZ gets a chance to enter new markets by covering more countries and regions,” the head of the fund said. “At the same time, in addition to the expansion of possibilities from a geographical point of view, a portfolio diversification according to the strategy of property (ready, under construction, etc.) and by its type (residential, logistics, etc.) is taking place.”
SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million.
Based on SOFAZ’s regulations, its funds may be used for construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.
The main goals of the State Oil Fund are accumulation of resources and placement of the Fund’s assets abroad in order to minimize the negative effect on the economy, prevention of “Dutch disease” to some extent, promotion of resource accumulation for future generations, and supporting current social and economic processes in Azerbaijan.
