Saturday, Jun 18, 2011
BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Emaar the Economic City, or Emaar EC, and Saudi Basic Industries Corp., or Sabic, didn't receive recently any benevolent loans from the Saudi government, Saudi-based Al Riyadh daily reports Saturday citing an official.
A benevolent loan, or Qard Hasan, is an Islamic interest-free loan.
A recent government loan to Emaar EC was granted on commercial terms and included a mortgage on plots of land owned by the company as security for the repayment of the loan, the paper reports, citing Suleiman Al Yahya, director general of public relations at the Saudi finance ministry, who was responding to an earlier article published in Al Riyadh.
Al Yahya told the daily that the Saudi state-run Public Investment Fund, or PIF, never granted any benevolent loan to Sabic. PIF owns a 70% stake in the petrochemical giant Sabic, which is the largest listed company in the Middle East region, according to Zawya.com data.
Emaar EC, which is owned by corporate and individual shareholders, is developing the King Abdullah Economic City mega project on the Red Sea coast to the north of Jeddah.
Newspaper website: http://www.alriyadh.com/2011/06/18/article642943.html
-By Beirut Bureau, Zawya Dow Jones; +961-1-985 757; BeirutZDJ@zawya.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
18-06-11 0738GMT
