IslamicFinance.de

Jadwa Investment has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Saudi Mechanical Industries (SMI) by the Jadwa Mechanical Opportunities Fund along with Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp). The investment in SMI marks Jadwa’s eighth private equity deal. In 2014, Jadwa completed two major Tadawul listings with Abdulmohsen Al Hokair Group and Al Hammadi Company for Development and Investment, and a full exit via a trade sale with Gulf United Foods Company. Jadwa also announced in September 2014 the full acquisition of Global Environmental Management Services.

Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), the multilateral development bank of the 10 member states of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), has closed a five-year SR1 billion ($267 million) bilateral Shari’ah-compliant facility with Al Rajhi Bank. The facility is aimed at retaining and increasing APICORP’s medium-term funding. Al Rajhi Bank was the sole Murabaha Facility Arranger, Lender and Agent. APICORP enjoys a foreign currency issuer rating of Aa3 for long-term debt and Prime-1 for its short-term debt with stable outlook from Moody’s Investors Service. Al Rajhi Bank is the largest retail bank in KSA with total assets of SR279 billion ($74.4 billion).

Maximizing the Arab world's gains from energy resources is possible through cross-border collaboration. Since a large number of opportunities are currently available, energy resources can be piped and distributed across the region through a regional energy grid. 60% of the world’s proven oil and 40% of gas reserves are held by the region. The energy demand in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region has grown 500% over the last 30 years, thus representing a highly beneficial target for energy trade.