Bahraini Islamic investment group banking on Saudi-UAE logistics boom

Bahrain-based GFH Bank is chasing returns the Gulf’s fastest-moving property sectors in Saudi Arabia and the UAE have to offer, with a US$300 million logistics and industrial real estate platform.

The platform will be rolled out in collaboration with OCTO Management Consultancies with GFH as the investment manager and development partner for a portfolio spanning large-format warehousing, cold storage, multi-let industrial assets and distribution centers. The platform will target a mix of build-to-suit and speculative developments, with a focus on development-stage assets designed to capture what the partners describe as growing occupier demand in both kingdoms.

The timing of the deal, inked on the back of exceptional institutional capital inflows into Saudi Arabia and the UAE, is pointed.

The UAE logged double-digit growth in industrial and logistics rents in 2025, driven by professional talent migration, substantial private investment, and strategic infrastructure development. That momentum is underpinned by robust trade flows: UAE non-oil exports surged 41.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) in Q1 2025, with re-exports totaling AED630 billion (US$171.55 billion) – figures that reinforce structural demand for modern warehousing and logistics space. Meanwhile, the UAE's GDP is forecast to grow 5.1% in 2026, with US$470 billion in committed real estate projects by 2030, including over US$300 billion in Dubai alone.  

Saudi Arabia tells a similar story. The Kingdom's logistics sector, according to CBRE, has seen rental appreciation of up to 28% y-o-y in some Riyadh submarkets, fuelled by non-oil industrial output growth of 7.1% y-o-y, underscoring an urgent market need for modern, well-connected logistics facilities. Logistics assets in Saudi Arabia are forecast to expand at a 7.92% CAGR through 2031, with e-commerce growth and manufacturing localization driving warehouse demand. Kuwait Financial Centre, or Markaz, put the number of industrial facilities in the Kingdom at 12,067 as of March 2025, an 8% y-o-y increase, with 261 industrial licenses issued worth approximately US$1.95 billion in Q1 2025 alone.

For GFH, which currently manages approximately US$24 billion in Shariah compliant assets across the GCC, the US and Europe, the platform deepens an ongoing push into logistics real estate.

“The logistics sector across Saudi Arabia and the UAE continues to benefit from strong structural tailwinds supported by economic diversification strategies, expanding trade flows and sustained demand for modern warehousing and distribution infrastructure,” explained Luay Ahmadi, the managing director and global head of institutions at GFH.

The platform arrives as institutional capital increasingly eyes Gulf logistics as a structural rather than cyclical play, with Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia and the UAE's Operation 300bn – a 10-year industrial strategy – continuing to reshape both markets' long-term supply chains.