JEDDAH, 16 July — The interim financial results of Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) show a net profit of $18.11 billion for the first half of 2002, compared to $25.71 billion for the same period last year.
“This drop in income was due to the decrease in the interest income, resulting from the drop in interest rates worldwide. The corporation’s lending and investing activities, however, showed welcome gains compared with the corresponding period in 2001,” an APICORP press release said yesterday.
The board of directors of APICORP, which reviewed reports on the developments of the corporation’s business, including its finance and investment activities in addition to the interim financial statements for the first half of the year, endorsed the results at its second meeting for the year held on Sunday at the corporation’s head office in Alkhobar.
Abdullah Al-Zaid, adviser to Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi and representative of the government, chaired the meeting.
The board also reviewed the 2001 annual reports and financial statements of the 11 Arab joint ventures in which APICORP holds equity share interests.
These projects are located in the Kingdom, Bahrain, the Libyan Jamahiriya, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan, and operate in the fields of basic petrochemicals, liquefied petroleum gas, drilling and workover services, chemical fertilizers, carbon black and industrial fibers.
For future financing of loans and investments, APICORP signed a medium term syndicated loan agreement to borrow $300 million on May 30 this year.
Credit Agricole Indosuez, Gulf international Bank BSC, HSBC Investment Bank plc, Riyad Bank and Sumitomo Mitusi Banking corporation were the mandated lead arrangers for this loan, which partly will be used to repay an existing $225 million loan that is set to mature in July this year.
APICORP participated in a number of petroleum project finance transactions amounting to about $5 billion, with a final commitment of $454 million, during the past six months.