Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Gulf Properties enters alliance with Gawah Holdings Inc. & Megalodon Services Ltd. to bring multiple real estate funding & liquidity solutions to the region.
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Gulf Properties, the real estate arm of Warren Buffett’s brand, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has signed a strategic alliance with Gawah Holdings Inc, and Megalodon Services Ltd. to provide alternative capital markets solutions for real estate assets through Digital Security Offerings (‘DSO’).
A real estate DSO is the process of raising capital and issuing digital securities representing ownership and economic interests in an underlying asset. The ability to provide secondary liquidity for investors is an important differentiator for traditionally illiquid assets such as real estate.
Regionally, this will avail real estate sector participants much needed methods of transacting on assets and generating volume, whilst maintaining a certain degree of liquidity depending on the medium utilised. Whether they are buyers, sellers, or investors, the aim of the group’s combined platform is to allow for wide participation and products providing investors with lower entry barriers and optimal secondary liquidity. It will offer innovative solutions for buyers and sellers to execute transactions through a digital ecosystem, either for a fraction of an asset or in its entirety, and for a new market place to arise with much less complexities than those borne by existing conventional real estate markets.
Utilising blockchain technology, alternative trading systems and universal exchanges as a combined force will also add transparency and smart solutions.
The aim of the alliance is to initially cover the Gulf market and build upon success to a wider global reach.
Dr. Ihsan Al Marzooqi, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Gulf Properties said, “Since setting up Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ first network office in Asia, one of our primary goals is attracting awareness and foreign investment into the UAE real estate market by working closely with the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network across the globe and bringing best-in-class advisory practises to the local market. We are excited to work alongside Gawah Holdings and Megalodon, to offer innovative ways to enhance foreign liquidity through digital security offerings, a practise that has seen an increasing trend globally’’.
Suhail Al Ansari, Deputy Vice Chairman of Gawah Holding Inc. added, “As a diversified investment company, we strive to identify market trends in sectors that we are actively engaged in, and in forging partnerships with industry leaders who can bring complementary capabilities together. BHHSGP has set a new benchmark in the Gulf with its entry into the market, while Megalodon’s track record in digital security offerings in the real estate sector speaks for itself. Through this alliance, we are confident that we can realise opportunities through our innovative approach during these challenging times.”
Esteban Van Goor, Managing Partner of Megalodon Services Ltd. said, “Megalodon has a global reputation for being one of those firms that undertakes a significant amount of due diligence prior to taking on work. DSO’s service requests in the real estate space is currently seeing strong requests globally. This is a nascent but rapidly growing market that can provide much needed capital to the local real estate market. Megalodon and Gawah had already signed an alliance and started preliminary work on DSO’s in a different sector in a different region, and believe the expertise brought by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ team in Dubai complements this.”
The Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network operates 1,500 offices with 50,000 professional agents. Its international operations continue to grow with offices in Canada, Alaska, New Mexico, Portugal, Italy, Spain, U.K., and the United Arab Emirates all contributing in its global ability to source off-market commercial and residential real estate assets whilst maintaining a truly unique offering and relationship with owners, buyers, sellers and other participants of the real estate sector. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Gulf Properties will bring its command and knowledge of the local real estate sector to the group and assist in educating the sector with multiple solutions outside of the conventional space available to them. This will allow the company to strengthen its relationships and safeguard its position as a global leader in the space.
Gawah Holdings Inc is a diversified investment company with interests across multiple businesses and strategic alliances with some the world’s finest companies, entities and pioneers, housed within a unified ecosystem, allowing for the amalgamation of products and services to act as a value aggregator. The company holds stakes in businesses related, but not limited to, digital securities lending, fundraising, blockchain technology and universal exchanges such as MASEx which has also most recently signed a partnership with another globally recognized and regulated exchange in the west: Tokenise. The underlying companies and investments of Gawah Holdings Inc along with its strategic alliances span the United States, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Its alliances include globally recognized companies such as Tynton Group under which sits the UK Cloud enterprise.
Megalodon is a financial consultancy firm specialising in legal and fintech advisory focusing on digital securities. The team is experienced in both traditional finance and blockchain technology and maintaining strong connections in the blockchain space with promising entrepreneurs, leading blockchain developers and other investors around the globe. Career experience of the managing partners at Megalodon spans from top tier legal firms such Baker McKenzie to investment banks including Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas. Megalodon also affords a unique relationship with secondary markets allowing to trade Digital Securities. These relationships combined with being able to satisfy the associated regulatory and due diligence requirements for DSOs is something that truly separates the firm, from current players in the market who may very well deliver upon a DSO private placement but are unable to bring the secondary liquidity required to make it a true alternative for traditional security offerings.