JEDDAH, 6 June 2006 — Saudi Arabian Airlines is the next state-owned corporation in line for privatization, Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf has announced. He hinted at the possibility of transforming the airline into a private company soon. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the board of governors of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Kuwait, Al-Assaf said the privatization of Saudia would take place before issuing the license for the third mobile phone. According to previous reports, Saudia intends to sell 30 percent of its shares in an initial public offering (IPO) this year. “Saudia is one of the major Saudi companies which will go public this year,” Al-Jazirah Arabic daily quoted an economic source as saying.
SABB Wins Best Funds Manager Award
RIYADH, 6 June 2006 — SABB has been awarded the Best Investment Funds Manager for the year 2005 by the SAMA Investment Products Committee. The announcement was made recently at a party held by the committee, which consists of Saudi banks’ representatives. SABB investment funds have so far won 26 prizes on the basis of the bank’s excellent performance in managing the investment funds over different periods ranging from one, three to five years. SABB has also scooped the first prize for its management of a group of investments, such as the Amanah Saudi Equity Fund, which has bagged the first prize for 2005 and the Saudi Equity Trading Fund which took the first prize for the same year and the Best Performance Award in the three and five years category.
New SAIB Fund Achieves 47% Profit
RIYADH, 6 June 2006 — The Saudi Investment Bank (SAIB) announced yesterday that its recently introduced Initial Offering Opportunities Fund achieved 47 percent profit by trading its stocks in three companies. Revenue from the sales will be distributed among he subscribers this month, a company statement said yesterday. Though the fund was launched in September, its subscriptions exceeded the targeted $100 million to reach $226.7 million. The fund had planned to achieve the investor capital growth by the investing basically in initial offering markets besides in shares of the Gulf companies in their founding stage. Saud Saleh Al-Saleh, general manager of the SAIB, expressed his satisfaction over the vibrant performance of the fund in achieving its objectives and making profit for the investors in a generally volatile market in record time.
Lubna Al-Qassimi to Open Family Forum
JEDDAH, 6 June 2006 — Sheikha Lubna Al-Qassimi, minister of economy and planning in the United Arab Emirates, will open the first Gulf family business forum in Dubai today. The three-day event will discuss the challenges being faced by some 20,000 family businesses in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).The forum is significant as Gulf family businesses have a combined investment of $2.5 trillion.