Arcapita $500 mln Islamic bond oversubscribed: CEO

DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain-based private equity group Arcapita said it expects to sell more than its $500 million target in an Islamic bond which closes on April 11.

The funds raised from the Murabaha facility, arranged by banks including Standard Chartered, West LB and Standard Bank, will be used to refinance existing debt and general financing.

"We expect to sell more than the $500 million," Arcapita CEO Atif Abdulmalik told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

He said the company also plans to list two European companies, including utilities, on the Singapore bourse.

"There is demand in Asia for these kinds of products especially from pension funds," Abdulmalik said.

He also detailed plans to exit some of Arcapita's current holdings.

"This year could be one of our busiest in terms of exits. It could be as low as four (investments), or high as seven, the value could be a couple of billion dollars," he added.

In January, the bank said it had made its biggest U.S. acquisition, a dental practice management firm, but declined to give the value of the purchase.

Its previous largest U.S. acquisition was engineering firm Tensar Corp. for $405 million.

Arcapita's biggest ever takeover was in October, when the bank bought Viridian Group, Northern Ireland's biggest electricity supplier, for 1.62 billion pounds ($3.2 billion).