GOIC and Fincorp ink co-operation agreement on industrial investment projects

HE the Secretary General of GOIC, Dr. Ahmed Khalil Al Mutawa' signed on behalf of GOIC; while Mr. Mohammed Hamdi Salem, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, signed on behalf of FINCORP Investment Co.

This agreement is pursuant to the MOU signed in April 2007 between GOIC and FINCORP on Strategic Cooperation between the two parties. The articles of the agreement covered a number fields of mutual cooperation between GOIC and FINCORP including project study, project development, and management covering activities of project identification studies; project profiles; market studies; pre-feasibility and feasibility studies; project development and promotion; and project implementation.

Within the framework of activating the items of this cooperation, GOIC and FINCORP propose to establish "Gulf Industrial Investment Holding Company" with an initial paid up capital of $500m and issued capital of $100m for the purpose of promoting and investing in potential investment opportunities introduced by GOIC and FINCORP. Both parties will invite banks, companies, institutions, and groups of businessmen in GCC member states to subscribe to the capital.

In addition, the two parties agreed that the holding company establishes subsidiary companies for a selected group of industrial projects, where a company will be established for each project (special purpose vehicles (SPV)) with investments of up to $150m per project, to achieve an internal rate of return on capital of 25% and 18% of the project as a minimum. It is planned to put up part of the capital of these companies for public subscription through the stock market at a later stage.

It is worth mentioning that GOIC, founded in 1976, targets developing industries throughout GCC by means of providing, both the industrial and economic sectors, with distinctive knowledge, consultancy and technical services. GOIC's mandate is to promote the highest levels of industrial cooperation and collaboration, in both the public and private sectors, by providing a complete set of high-quality, specialized research, information and consultancy services.

GOIC recently singed a group of memorandums of understanding and cooperation agreements with a number of institutions and international organizations such as Gulf One Bank, Carnegie Mellon University and ISTIA. A record to be added to GOIC credits in establishing relationships with leading establishments such as WTO, ESCWA, UNIDO, and OECD.

On the other hand, FINCORP (an Egyptian joint stock company) was established in Egypt in 1998 with a paid up capital of 30m; it is a fully licensed investment-banking firm under the Egyptian Capital Market Law. The company works to provide financial services for the promotion and coverage of subscription in securities, management of portfolios and investment funds, venture capital, establishing companies, financial consulting.

The company's management composes of a group of experts at the highest level of expertise and competence in the areas of financial consulting and asset management, where the experts of the group have provided a range of specialized and distinctive financial advisory services to a large number of major companies and banks operating in the Middle East.

FINCORP activities extend at the regional level through a network of affiliates and sister companies located in most important Arab markets which are Doha, Dammam, Riyadh, Dubai, Khartoum, Damascus (under foundation), and the company also has alliances with major financial consulting companies in each of Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, and Algeria.