APICORP held its 4th Board Meeting for the year 2006

23/12/2006 – The Board of Directors of Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) held its 4th meeting for the year 2006 on Saturday 23rd of December 2006, in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Abdullah Al-Zaid, representative of the government of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the meeting was attended by representatives from member states, namely: Arab Republic of Egypt, the Syrian Arab Republic, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, the Republic of Iraq, the State of Qatar, the State of Kuwait and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

The meeting was also attended by Mr. Ahmad Bin Hamad Al-Nuaimi, Chief Executive and General Manager of APICORP.

The Board reviewed matters on its agenda related to the Corporation’s financing and investment activities, as well as the Financial Statements for the period from the January to November 2006. In addition, the Board also reviewed the Corporation’s Budget Estimate for the year 2007.

Mr. Al-Nuaimi stated that APICORP’s Financial Statements for period, disclosed an 11% increase in the Corporation’s profits over the estimate for the same period. While both Total Assets and Total Shareholders’ Equity rose by 12% and 5.7% respectively over their last year’s levels, reflecting the steady progress achieved by the numerous Corporation’s activities, particularly the equity participations sector, which significantly participated to this year’s profits.

On the project and trade finance front, Mr. Nuaimi pointed out that the year 2006 witnessed a remarkable increase in the Corporation’s financing activities, which resulted in a 25% jump in the Corporation’s loans balances for the year.

For period under prespective (January-November), APICORP signed 16 project and trade finance loan agreements, in addition to 8 mandates for arranging project finance loans. Furthermore, APICORP was also the Regional Book-runner for a number of major financings concluded in the region.

Mr. Al-Nuaimi added that, between the months of September and November of the current year, APICORP’s participation in project and trade finance transactions totalled US$ 1.6 billion, with a final take of US$ 70 million, these loans were arranged for petroleum and petrochemical projects in the Arab world.

At the end, the Chairman and members of the Board of Directors, together with the Chief Executive and General Manager, expressed their thanks and gratitude to the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for the warm reception and generous hospitality extended to them during their stay in their second homeland Egypt.