Abraj begins listing on KSE Mon
KUWAIT CITY: Abraj Holding, set for a Monday listing, said it expects its net profit to double to KD 2.0 million for the current fiscal year. In its pre-listing briefing held Saturday, the company targets its revenue to grow to KD 8.0 million from KD 7.0 million a year ago. It made a net profit of KD 978,000 in 2005. Abraj will debut at an initiation price of KD 0.400 fils on Monday. It recorded a KD 1.5 million net profit for the nine months ending July 31.
The company, whose main operation is in cleaning services and transportation, has a capital of KD 5.0 million. 18 per cent of its stake is owned by Al-Madina Leasing and Investment Co, but the majority shareholders are members of the al Muttawa family.
Its business development manager, Ken Wells, said the company is close to securing a major cleaning and waste management contract with the Saudi government.
"The contract that we expect to sign very soon in Saudi deals with waste management, street cleaning, and recycling. It will be a large government contract," he told reporters at the conference's sidelines.
He did not disclose the size of the contract.
Abraj currently has outstanding job worth KD 31 million for the next three years, from 37 separate contracts.
Its major clients include Kuwait Oil Company, for which it performs waste recycling, Ministry of Health, Public Transport Co and Ministry of Defense, for which it does cleaning and maintenance work.
Its largest subsidiary al Abraj Cleaning Co, has more than KD 20 million contracts, and has an asset of KD 7.0 million.
The company's other subsidiaries include al Masseelah Cleaning Co, Al Abraj Security, landscaping company Al Abraj Agriculture, and Al Abraj Transportation which provides collective transport and car rentals for the government sector.
The company is also expected to establish a logistics and warehousing subsidiary, which is expected to be operational within the next six months, said its vice chairman and managing director Samer Naser Ali Hussain.
"The share holders will be 99 per cent under al Abraj Holding, and will be focused in the activities in the GCC area and in Turkey," he said.
The management also said it expects to sign some joint ventures in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain to enable the company to sign contracts in the very immediate future.
"Our focus in Saudi is going to initiate the eastern provinces, where the biggest business in Saudi will come from ARAMCO and SABIC,"
"There is a much needed services there in industrial cleaning. We are taking new license to get into industrial services, we want to get into more technically focus services, and move into the oil and gas industry filed," said Wells. He added that the company is also looking to expand into Iraq. Al-Abraj Holding Company was established as a Kuwaiti shareholding company closed which effective activity began in 1999.
By Maisara Ismail
© Arab Times 2006
