At Arcapita, Olafson will focus on building a portfolio of real estate investments in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia.

Arcapita only invests in assets that are shari’ah compliant, explains Olafson in an exclusive interview with FinanceAsia, and prefers to take majority stakes and have control of its investments. But this is not a prerequisite and Arcapita could also take a minority position if the asset meets its investment criteria and, further, if Arcapita is able to work around its investment constraints to ensure it does not miss out on opportunities. So, for example, Arcapita cannot own hotels but if it invests in a mixed-use development that includes a hotel component, it could enter a forward sale contract for specifically the hotel.

Arcapita seeks to deploy a minimum of $150 million and can go up to $500 million per deal. “We anticipate opportunities at the first stage in China, Australia, Singapore and Japan,” says Olafson “But we are also looking at markets like Korea and Thailand.”