JEDDAH, 17 September 2006 — Gulf One Investment Bank, the region’s leading infrastructure investment bank, yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with DEPFA Bank, the Dublin-based leading international provider of specialized financial services and financing solutions for the public sector. The MOU was signed by Dr. Nahed Taher, CEO of Gulf One, and Paul Leatherdale, managing director and member of the executive committee of DEPFA Bank.
“Gulf One is focused on providing innovative investment banking services in the infrastructure and mega projects sector, especially in the water and electricity sector. The signing of this MOU will strengthen our ability to provide the right advisory services to those projects,” said Dr. Taher. “The water sector in the Kingdom alone requires infrastructure investments estimated to be in excess of $85 billion over the next 10 years. The area of cooperation between us is tremendous as it will include identifying the prospective infrastructure projects that require advising, arranging and providing the financing for those essential infrastructure assets,” she added. To that end, she told Arab News that Gulf One is in the process of establishing a ten-year $2 billion fund by investors to finance water and other infrastructure projects. Gulf One will be signing agreements with the private sector involved in infrastructure projects. It recently signed a MOU to invest in Amiwater, a subsidiary of Amiantit. “These kinds of agreements enable the private sector to enter the water sector and public services sector when they have the right financial structure,” she said. The bank has also recently made proposals to enter in the privatization of Saudi Arabian Airlines, according to Dr. Taher. “Our aim is to focus on infrastructure projects in oil, gas, mining and major logistics like shipping,” she said.
The signing of the MOU will further build upon Gulf One’s strategic alliance and partnership base in order to enhance its core competencies through the outsourcing of tasks thus increasing its overall capabilities and speed to market. DEPFA Bank brings in its considerable expertise of eighty years in public sector financing. Moreover, DEPFA Bank’s value added services will strengthen Gulf One’s overall competencies in providing innovative investment banking products, which are being structured according to the region’s financing requirements.
“Stephen Uhlig, managing director of DEPFA Bank, London branch, said “We specialize in public financing of infrastructure development and we are increasingly entering developed countries by partnering with great locals such as Gulf One. Every country has its problems in dealing with privatization, we bring in our international expertise and combine it with a local partner even in Europe.”
DEPFA Bank, which has a ‘AAA’ rating, is entering the Gulf region banking sector for the first time. “What encouraged us to enter this region for the first time was Gulf One’s management’s clear vision, deep understanding of the region’s infrastructure project financing needs, which is in line with the latest long-term financing products and services that they will provide and herein lies our expertise,” said Uhlig. “They have shown us detailed solutions and a clear strategy to structure those solutions to fit into the region’s needs. The Gulf market is lucrative and has a lot of untapped potential. Our public finance products spectrum covers all requirements, targeting clients across all levels of the public sector and we are confident that our services such as those related to project budget financing, funding of public infrastructure projects, advising on the rating process associated with the privatization of public services, debt restructuring, supporting bond placements or extending credit lines will complement Gulf One’s expertise,” he said.
“This is a great achievement for me, it took a lot of hard work and effort. They did not want to enter the region before but now they found in Gulf One the right partner at the right time,” said Dr. Taher. They will be meeting with deputy minister of water, Luay Musallem, and officials from SWICC and Amiantit for the water investments. This will include desalination, water technology-transfer, R&D and creating new companies,” she added.
Ziyad F. Omar, founder and chief investment & operating officer of Gulf One, told Arab News that “There is local and regional liquidity and appetite available for infrastructure projects. However, it is equally important to attract international financing (domestic money abroad or foreign) to address the vast regional infrastructure requirements and to build strategic international partnerships. Gulf One and DEPFA Bank are optimistic about being part of the transformation that will lead to such important milestones”.