APICORP holds 2nd Board of Directors meet

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Abdullah Al-Zaid, representative of the government of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the meeting was attended by representatives of the governments of member states namely: Syria, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. In addition, the meeting was also attended by Mr. Ahmad Bin Hamad Al-Nuaimi, Chief Executive and General Manager of APICORP.

Mr. Al-Nuaimi declared that the Board of Directors reviewed reports on the Corporation's finance and investment activities, in addition to the Corporation's interim financial statements for the period from January to June 2007.

As disclosed by Mr. Al-Nuaimi, the Corporation's interim financial results for the period under consideration were projected to achieve the following results: net income for the first six month of 2007 would total US$46 million, compared to US$41 million for the same period of 3006, while total assets were expected to grow to US$2.7 billion, compared to US$2.6 by 31 December 2006. In addition, total shareholders equity was expected to top US$ 933 million compared to US$ 897 million by year-end 2006.

Mr. Al-Nuaimi added that the Board also reviewed the 2006 annual reports and financial statements of the 14 Arab joint ventures companies where APICORP holds direct equity investments. The total value of APICORP's share in these projects as at 31 December 2006 totalled US$256.7 million. These projects are located in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the Libyan Jamahiriya, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan, while their activities cover a wide spectrum in the field of oil, gas and petrochemical industries such as : seismic services, drilling and related services in the Arab world, storage of petroleum products, extraction and marketing of LPG, production of methyl tertiary butyl ether, polypropylene, aromatics, purified terephathalic acid, polyester fibres, linear alkyl benzene, carbon black, acrylic fibers and methanol, in addition to other petrochemical products.

The end of year financial results disclosed that APICORP's investments portfolio in the above projects achieved an unprecedented rise in profit amounting to US$30.1 million, or an 85% increase over the year's 2005. These significants results were the outcome of the remarkable profits achieved by the Saudi European Petrochemicals Company (Ibn Zahr in which APICORP holds a 10% equity share).

APICORP's Chief Executive and General Manager added that, during the 2nd quarter of 2007, the project and trade finance activities of the Corporation managed to maintain their high activity profile that resulted in APICORP's participation in project and trade finance facilities totalling US$2.0 billion, with APICORP final take of US$173 million. It is worth mentioning here that APIORP has also managed to indentify a number of potential investments opportunities, not only in Gulf region, but also in North African and the Mediterranean countries.

Chairman and members of the Board of Directors and General Manager of APICORP expressed their thanks and appreciations to the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, represented by His Excellency Engineer Sufian Alalao, Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources and member of the Board of Directors, for the warm and cordial reception and generous hospitality extended to them during their stay in Damascus.