JEDDAH, 8 October 2007 — Efforts are under way to establish an SR1.2 billion oil and gas service company by a group of Saudi and Gulf businessmen and industrialists, according to Osama Al-Kurdi, a member of the new company’s board of directors. He said the company has selected China’s Shengli Oilfield Company as its strategic foreign partner. He said the new company would compete with foreign oil companies working in the Kingdom. Its services will cover not only the Gulf but also Middle East and African countries, Kurdi added.
NCCI’s Profit Down 1.3%
Reuters
RIYADH — The National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) made a net profit of SR103.1 million ($27.5 million) in the third quarter, down 1.3 percent from the year-earlier period. NCCI’s net profit made SR489 million in the nine months to Sept. 30, up 33 percent from the same period in 2006, it said in a statement on the bourse website yesterday. It did not give third quarter data which Reuters calculated from previous financial statements. The company is facing growing competition from more than a dozen new insurance companies, which have been licensed to operate in the Kingdom.
5th MENAinc Workshop Set
Mehmood Rafique, Arab News
MANAMA — The Bahrain Business Incubator Center, in cooperation with the World Bank InfoDev program, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Network for SMEs-Italy and the MENA OECD Investment Center, will host the 5th MENAinc workshop titled “Shaping the Future through Innovation & Entrepreneurship.” The event will be held in Bahrain on Oct. 21-24 under the patronage of Sheikh Ebrahim ibn Khalifa Al-Khalifa, undersecretary ministry of finance and chairman of the Bahrain Development Bank.
Amwaj Gateway Project Begins
Mehmood Rafique, Arab News
MANAMA — Construction work at Amwaj Gateway, the leading project at RealCapita, announced the start of construction after awarding the $140 million contract to Turkish Cukurove Construction Industry and Trd. Inc. “This step will be added to the success we have achieved in the short period since the establishment of Amwaj Gateway Company, which will put us in a prime position to achieve the targets of our shareholders and unit buyers” said Qais Al-Maskati, managing director of Amwaj Gateway.”