RISAL's current shareholder, A. A. Turki Group of Companies (ATCO), will retain a 49 percent stake in the company. ATCO, which is also among ECG's founding shareholders along with Rawabi Holding Company, Al-Muhaidib Group and Al-Ansari Holding Company, is one of Saudi Arabia's leading conglomerate companies successfully operating in the governmental, industrial and consumer sectors.
RISAL was established in 1976 by ATCO to undertake major maintenance contracts for Saudi Aramco in the Eastern Province.
It has since grown the company into a well-known provider of industrial services to a broad range of companies operating in the downstream oil and gas, petrochemicals, power and water, and EPC sectors.
Specifically, RISAL provides four key services: Waste management, chemical cleaning, catalyst handling and water jetting in addition to a number of additional complementary activities. The company's services are provided on customer plant sites during the pre-commissioning of new plants, operational maintenance of running plants and shutdowns and turnarounds of running plants. Its client list today includes Saudi Aramco, Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Saudi Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) and all major engineering and construction companies active in the Saudi market, which it serves through a team of 500 multi-skilled employees operating in five strategic locations throughout the Kingdom including Riyadh, Dammam, Jubail, Rahima, Jeddah and Yanbu.
Ali Abdulaziz Al-Turki, founding partner and CEO of Energy Capital Group, said: "We are delighted to announce the acquisition of a majority stake in RISAL, a long-established player in the industrial services market with a strong, experienced and stable management team that has over the last five years made significant strides in building the RISAL brand and strengthening its operational and financial performance to effectively position the company for its next phase of growth. This transaction will provide RISAL with further operational support and capital in order to help the company fully maximize market opportunities that exist for its services, which are substantial and growing in line with the Kingdom's economy and plans for the further development of downstream petroleum and other related industrial sectors. This transaction is also significant, providing our investors with an opportunity to take part in this growth and benefit from the ongoing development of the region's energy and industrial sectors, where opportunities are often difficult for individual and institutional investors to access."
The main growth drivers for RISAL are the steady maintenance requirements of existing plants across the Kingdom plus the large number of new capital projects that are expected to come on line including the addition of numerous planned oil and gas refineries and petrochemicals plants. Estimates have put past total capital projects in the areas that RISAL is active at approximately $11 billion for 2010 with expectations that this figure will grow substantially over the coming years to over $33 billion by 2014, based on confirmed announcements of new projects.