Kuwait Projects Company joins Abdali PSC as strategic partner

Under the terms of the agreement KIPCO enters as partner in Abdali PSC. With its additional investments in the project, KIPCO Group's total investment amounts to US$400 million.

The signing of the MOU took place with Sheikh Baha Hariri, Chairman of Abdali PSC and representing OGER Jordan, Eng. Akram Abu Hamdan Vice Chairman, Abdali PSC and representing MAWARED, Mr. Faisal Al Ayyar, Managing Director and CEO of the Kuwait Projects Company, and Eng.Jamal Itani, General Manager, Abdali PSC.

"We are pleased to welcome the Kuwait Projects Company as our new partners in the Abdali PSC and believe that this strategic partnership will reflect positively and add great value to our overall strategy," stated Sheikh Baha Hariri, Chairman, Abdali PSC.

"As a Jordanian organization we aim to further enhance the ripe conditions for increased local economic development by attracting local and international investments. Abdali PSC now has a strong and formidable pool of expertise through its strategic partnerships that will catapult our objectives of transforming locations in the city of Amman and beyond into thriving centres of high quality urban community living. Simultaneously these developments will further strengthen the surrounding financial and hospitality areas."

This agreement is in line with Abdali PSC's long term vision to create feasible and financially viable investment opportunities in the Jordanian market that will benefit the economy's position regionally and internationally. The development of customer centric properties which provide world class residential, office and retail units will provide sustainable value to investors and stakeholders alike.

Mr. Faisal Al Ayyar, Managing Director and CEO, KIPCO, said: "Through our initial investment in the Jordan Kuwait Bank in 1976, KIPCO has been one of the largest investors in the Jordanian economy."

He continued: "Since then Jordan has transformed itself in to a knowledge based economy and is regarded as a regional leader in information communications technology. Now the Abdali regeneration project will provide the impetus for further development and investment bringing renewed life and vitality to a strategic important area of downtown Amman."

KIPCO brings a wealth of experience to the Abdali project as one of the premier investment companies in the Middle East and North Africa region and with substantial interests in real estate and management advisory service.

This coupled with the extensive expertise and knowledge of both Saudi Oger and Mawared creates a formidable union of companies that will drive to completion existing Abdali PSC projects such as the Abdali Urban Regeneration scheme that will be creating a new downtown in the heart of Amman, and future developments.

KIPCO has substantial ownership interests in a portfolio of some 55 companies operating throughout the region and internationally in its two major business sectors of financial services and media & telecommunications, as well as real estate, industry, management & advisory, medical services and aviation. Its shares are among the most actively traded on the Kuwait Stock Exchange with more than US$15 billion in group assets.

KIPCO's core operating companies are investment banking subsidiary United Gulf Bank (UGB); Gulf Insurance Company (GIC), a regional leader in commercial and personal insurance; Burgan Bank, Kuwait's leading technology-driven commercial bank; Wataniya Telecom, the dynamic and fast-growing regional mobile telephone services provider; and Showtime, the hugely-popular digital pay-TV service spanning the Middle East and North Africa.