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ERam wins KraussMaffei contract
Germany's KraussMaffei, which makes machinery for processing plastics, has appointed Saudi-based eRam Holding, a diversified trading and service company, as its sales agent for the GCC. ERam will represent all three of KraussMaffei's technology divisions - extrusion, injection moulding and reaction process machinery - in the Gulf. The Jeddah-based group has branches in Riyadh, Dubai and Kuwait City, as well as in Amman, Beirut and Cairo outside of the GCC.
Flat screen manufacturer enters the UAE
Flat screen manufacturer AOC has entered the AUE market to sell its own brand. The Taiwan-based company is planning to set up a warehouse and offices in Dubai and may eventually have a manufacture base in the country, Khaleej Times has reported. The company expects at least 5% share of the Middle Eastern market for LCD monitors, flat screens and all-in-one components in 2009.
Saudi Steel Pipes to seek $106.7m in IPO
Saudi Steel Pipes has said it will seek to raise SR400 million ($106.7m) in an initial public offering of a 31.4% stake this week to help finance expansion plans worth SR646 million in partnership with other investors. The firm will offer 16 million new shares to local investors at SR25 riyals, fixed after a book-building process, would value the company at SR1.275 billion. Local banks will take subscription requests from June 27 until July 3.
Dubai Industrial City inks deal with Bank of Baroda
Dubai Industrial City has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bank of Baroda to finance investors across the light and medium industrial hub. Ashok K. Gupta, Chief Executive, GCC Operations of Bank of Baroda has pledged the lender's support to DI's clients in setting up their projects from the conceptual stage through execution. For large projects, the bank will take full responsibility by underwriting and arranging the syndicated loans and leveraging their relationship with other banks to support projects, he said.
Sipchem sells stakes in units for $64m
Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) has said it had sold 11% stakes in two affiliates to Kuwait's Ikarus Petroleum Industries for SR240 million ($64m). Sipchem will realize a profit of SR55 million from the deal in Q2 2009, Reuters has reported. Sipchem and Ikarus had initially agreed that the latter would take stakes of 15% in the two firms, but they agreed later to reduce the holding to 11%, Sipchem added.
Jotun Paints revenues up 40%
Eric Aaberg, Executive Group Vice-President of Jotun Paints has said that its sales had increased by 40% during the first four months of 2009 compared to the same period last year, Emirates Business reported. However, he said that the group was likely to witness a drop in revenues during the second half, due to the number of cancelled projects.
Centamin Egypt possible takeover target
Centamin Egypt is seen as a possible takeover target as the gold exploration company is set to move into production over the next month at its Sukari gold project in Egypt. North American gold miners, such as Newmont Mining Corp and Barrick Gold Corp, are seen as the most likely buyers, reported Reuters.
Dina Farms loans EGP200m for expansion
Egypt-based Dina for Agricultural Investments SAE (Dina Farms) has secured EGP200m loan agreement with three prominent Egyptian banks, arranged by Citadel Capital. The loan is intended to finance the expansion of Dina Farms' Dairy Operation, including the purchase of high-quality livestock. The company has recently bought 1,900 new pedigree Holstein heifers (pregnant cows) from North America.
Bahrain government sets up Neste lubricants JV
The Bahraini government has signed a joint venture agreement with Finnish Neste Oil to set up a lubricants manufacturing plant in the kingdom. The venture has project capitalisation of BD225m and is expected to top an annual output of 400,000 metric tons of high-quality oil lubricants and is expected to be complete by 2011. The JV, called the Bahrain Lubricant Basic Oil Lubrication Holding Company, is a 55:45 split between the government, represented by Oil and Gas Holding and Bapco, and Neste Oil.
Emirates Steel plans $1.6bn expansion
Emirates Steel is embarking upon a Dhs6bn ($1.63bn) phase two expansion of its UAE plant, which will increase capacity to three million tons a year by 2011. It will further boost its capacity to 6.5 million tons annually by 2013-2014 through capacity expansions and acquisitions. The company has recently completed phase one of its expansion plans, at a cost of Dhs3bn.
Uhde Inventa-Fischer wins Sabic contract
Uhde Inventa-Fischer has said it has won a contract from Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) to provide the technology license and the complete basic engineering of the 2nd PET Resin expansion of its manufacturing affiliate, Arabian Industrial Fiber Company (Ibn Rushd) at its site in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. The plant will have a capacity of 420,000 t/a and will produce various grades of PET Resin at the same time such as bottle still water and CSD application, among others.
Equate Petrochem expansion complete
Kuwaiti Equate Petrochemical Co. has announced the completion and successful start-up of its Polyethylene (PE) expansion project. The expansion will increase the company's overall PE production capacity to 825,000 metric tons annually of High Density PE and Linear Low Density PE resins.
Dubal denies production slowdown
Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal) has said that it has not cut output, after a supplier and metal traders said the firm was purchasing 30% fewer raw materials. 'We are still operating at full capacity of 960,000 tonnes per year and have made no production cuts,' a spokesman for government-run Dubal said. 'We have just changed our product mix.'
HSBC ups Sabic, Industries Qatar price estimates
HSBC Holdings has raised the price estimates of five chemical companies in the region, including Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic), which said higher crude prices will increase revenue. Sabic had its share-price estimate raised 5.6% to SR95, while price projection for Industries Qatar was raised to QR150 and Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co. to SR145. All three shares are rated "'overweight' by the bank. HSBC has also raised price estimates of Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co. and Yanbu National Petrochemical Co., who have a 'neutral' recommendation, to SR16 and SR30, respectively.
Egypt's FIHC tenders to buy 30,000 T edible oil
Egypt's state-owned Food Industries Holding Company (FIHC) is tendering to buy 15,000 tons of sunflower oil and 15,000 tons of soy oil for shipment during the second half of July, Reuters reported. The tender is for oil of any origin and the deadline for bids is June 18th, FIHC said.
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