Global invited to share its experience with investors in the First Saudi IPO Summit

The Summit, organized by IIR Middle East, will be held In Faisaliah Hotel, in Riyadh from 19-22 November 2006.

The Summit will feature prominent guests from the financial sector in the Middle East and eager investors from foreign markets.

Mr. Omar El-Quqa, Executive Vice President will give a presentation on the readiness for a business to go public. In addition, Mr. Shailesh Dash, Head of Strategic Investments Group will address IPO preparation steps, and Mr. Rajiv Nakani Head of Investment Banking, will conduct a pre-summit workshop on "IPO Feasibility Study," that highlights the different steps a firm would undergo to list.

Mr. Omar El-Quqa, Executive Vice President, said, "We are highly interested in the Saudi Market since we see a strong demand in IPOs and only less then 90 companies are present in the Saudi Stock Exchange (SSE) and it is expected more than 30 companies to be listed in the near future."

Most importantly the summit will focus on the fundamental issues surrounding IPO and its reasons for launching, process, essential management restructuring, conversion for family business, the prospectus, IPO marketing and exit strategy.

"The market capitalization of the Saudi market is one third of the GCC stock market, therefore, this opportunity is a chance to meet new decision makers and companies willing to build a network, go public, and offer them our expertise in advisory and investment banking" Added El-Quqa.

The Summit will consist of discussions amongst investment experts about the specific IPO issues facing stakeholders in Saudi Arabia. That would include regulatory issues companies face and how recent perceived market correction will affect IPOs and its capital markets with an endeavor for Saudi family business's to go public.

Today, Global manages two Pre-IPO Funds that invest in IPOs and Pre-IPOs in the GCC, Levant, North Africa and Asia. The portfolio of investments for the two funds is very prestigious and some of the major investments include Investcom in the telecommunications sector, Gulf Navigation Group in the logistics services, Ithamar Bank, the oil and gas company Reliance Petroleum Limited, India and many others.

Global also assisted in the private placement of several regional issues along with international banks. One of the issues was the IPO for Investcom, an international wireless telecom player providing services across Africa, Middle East and Europe with over 4 million subscribers. Investcom's Global Depository Shares were listed on the London Stock Exchange in October 2005. Global acted as a member of the exclusive Distribution Syndicate comprising of leading financial institutions in the region.

The second issue was an IPO for Telecom Egypt, Egypt's sole provider of fixed-line voice telecommunication services with the largest voice telephony subscriber base in the MENA region of over 10 million subscribers. Telecom Egypt's IPO of Ordinary Shares and Global Depository Receipts is among the largest international equity offerings out of the MENA region to date. Global acted as a member of the selling syndicate for the issue.

It is worth noting that Global houses one of the largest multi-disciplinary corporate finance teams in the GCC with strong and experienced management, successful track record, strong ties in the global market place specifically the GCC and a wide range of sector experience. It offers integrated corporate finance services varying from advisory, Investment Banking and Structured Finance

Mr. El-Quqa ended by saying,

"Over the past few years we have successfully placed over 40 equity placement issues with a total amount of around KD 677 million (USD 2.3 billion) and have helped list 25 companies in the GCC markets with a total market capitalization of USD 2.44 billion at the end of 2005".