Ominvest Business Centre was opened under the patronage of H E Mohammad al Zubair, advisor to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said for economic planning affairs in the presence of a number of Their Highnesses, board of directors and executive management of Ominvest. Following the inaugural ceremony the guests were taken on a tour to show the landmark building.
OBC, which sets a new benchmark in Oman for commercial design, incorporating state-of-the-art features, has been established to demonstrate Ominvest’s commitment to promote economic and social growth in Oman. Built by Ominvest’s subsidiary Oman Real Estate Investment & Services (ORIS), OBC is an integrated tourism complex (ITC) which has freehold status and is available for both local and foreign investors.
The project is strategically situated in the heart of Muscat and is ten minutes away from the Muscat International Airport. The new project is also expected to help Ominvest diversify its revenue streams and create durable value for all stakeholders. It is also part of Ominvest’s vision to be the largest and best performing publicly traded investment company in the MENA region within the next five years. OBC will also house the headquarters of Ominvest at the penthouse.
The inaugural ceremony opened with a speech by Khalid Muhammad al Zubair, chairman of Ominvest.
Khalid said, “Over the last 35 years, Ominvest has made remarkable progress and has evolved nimbly to be able to seize emerging opportunities and respond to new challenges. It has been both a gratifying and a humbling journey, which began in 1983, when our honourable father and his colleagues’ friends laid the foundation of Ominvest. Their vision and values have been the guiding principles for Ominvest ever since and will continue to drive our successes in the years to come.”
He said, “We attribute Ominvest’s achievements of the last three decades to our visionary founders, wise leadership of the succeeding chairmen and the boards of directors, and smart stewardship of our management teams. We are profoundly thankful to the esteemed leadership at the Central Bank of Oman and the Capital Market Authority for guiding and supporting us on bringing innovative transaction structures to the market and participating in large-scale capital market activities to increase liquidity and help build investor confidence.”
Speaking about the business model, Khalid said, “It entails building diverse business platforms and making sure our businesses are managed by highly capable professional management teams with the utmost integrity and alignment with all the stakeholders. We strive to add value to our portfolio companies through our active participation at the boards. Our mandate is to help our key businesses come up with the right vision, values and strategic direction, build the core leadership teams, adhere to the highest standards in corporate governance, and help achieve performance targets in key areas.”
Khalid explained that in addition to pursuing large-size value investments, Ominvest has also strengthened its balance-sheet by further optimising its capital structure. “Earlier this year, Ominvest successfully raised RO61mn in perpetual bonds – a source of permanent capital at attractive terms to align our long-term investments with longer duration liabilities. Our investment policy guides us to maintain modest leverage.”
“Our future focus is to further transform Ominvest into a well-diversified investment company of the 21st century by embracing innovative technologies to stay impactful in the digital age. We aim to accomplish this by making long-term value investments in new growth markets and in businesses that will be the dominant forces in their respective sectors in the decades ahead,” he added.
Abdulaziz al Balushi, group chief executive officer of Ominvest, said, “Ominvest will continue to play a key role in Oman’s economic growth, creating job opportunities for Omani nationals, helping businesses grow and attracting foreign investments to the sultanate. Ominvest is heavily invested in the future prosperity of Oman, with a strong focus on investments which will continue to grow to create greater value and deliver a positive impact on Omani economy and the region. We are pleased to open the OBC, which is poised to be the most desirable business address in Oman.”
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