Water services and energy saving programs on 25 year term basis

Dammam, 30 September 2003 - Through its group company AmiWater, Saudi Arabian Amiantit is the leading partner in a joint venture contract for two projects in Russia that have a total value of $30 million. AmiWater's subsidiary InfraMan, an Austrian company that specializes in water infrastructure management, has 51% of the joint venture contracts with the Russian partner taking 49%. Both contracts have already commenced and are on a 25 year term basis.

The biggest of the Russian projects has an overall budget of $20 million for water and waste water services, including an energy saving program, and is a joint venture with InfraMan and the municipality and the water utility of Balashicha, an attractive city a short distance from Moscow, with a population of 150,000 that swells by an additional 100,000 during the summer when residents from the Russian capital move in to take advantage of the pleasant ambience of Balashicha.

The second project, with a budget of $10 million for water, waste water and district heating services, including an energy saving program, is a joint venture between InfraMan and the municipality and the water utility of Dimitrovgrad, approximately 1000 kilometers southeast of Moscow, that was formerly a 'closed city' due to sensitive industrial activities. Dimitrovgrad has a population of 100,000 and the contract includes an extension of the pipe network to serve an additional 12,000 people.

"While manufacturing pipes for water and other fluid systems in Saudi Arabia remains our core business, we are now building on our Saudi success by exporting pipe making skills and production technologies through joint venture partnerships in many countries around the world," said Fareed Al-Khalawi, Managing Director and President of Saudi Arabian Amiantit Company.

"At the same time, in cooperation with our European subsidiaries, we have widened our sphere of activities to include full scale project development, management, operation and maintenance of water infrastructure services in partnership with governments, municipalities and private sector partnerships anywhere in the world."

Amiantit, through Amiwater is already operating or developing projects in Albania, Italy, Moldova, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand. On the other hand, there are projects that are under development in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, India, China, Romania, Ukraine, Peru and Guatemala.

© Press Release 2005