APICORP holds meeting

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: Egypt, Syria, 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, the Chief Executive and General Manager of APICORP.

Mr. Al-Naimi stated that the Board of Direcrtors discussed matters on the agenda and reviewed reports on the Corporation's business activities related to finance and investment. In addition, the Board of Directors also reviewed the financial statements of the Corporation for the period from January to September 2006.

As disclosed by the financial statements, net income for the period rose to US$ 52.9 million, compared to an estimate of US$ 50.2 for this period of the current year, whereas total assets jumped to US$ 2,776 million, compared to US$ 2,342 million at the beginning of the year, or an 18.5% increase, while total shareholders equity grew to US$ 967 million, compared to US$ 849 million at the beginning of year, or 14% increase.

Mr. Al-Nuaimi declared that the Board of Directors' approval of APICORP's participation of a 7% equity share in the US$ 300 million capital of the Egyptian Methanecs Methanol Company. The company aims to establish a methanol plant in the city of Damiatta with a production capacity of 1.3 million tons/year directed for export.

Mr. Al-Nuaimi added that the project and trade financing activity at the Corporation during the period between July and September of the current year participated in project finance loans valued at US$2.2 billion, with APICORP's final take of US$220 million. These facilities were offered to oil related industries in a number of Arab countries chief among them are: the Sultanate of Oman, The Libyan Jamahiriya, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In addition, APICORP's financial advisory service has been mandated to provide financial advisory services to a number of leading petroleum related projects in the Arab region.