In a bid to boost foreign investment in the kingdom, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Commerce and Industry decided to set up a new publicly held energy services firm with a paid up capital of 533.334 million Saudi riyals ($142 million).
Providing services to the petroleum, mineral, petrochemical, power and water desalination sectors, the new Riyadh-based company will operate under the name Industrialization and Energy Services Company. The holding firm’s 10.66 million shares would not be traded before its posts profits for two full-year periods.
The new services company is planned to take form identical to industrial giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC). Saudi Arabia has been rumored to be mulling privatizing some of the non-core operations of state-owned Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producing firm.
Saudi Arabia sits on the world's biggest oil reserves with an estimated 261 billion barrels and has proven natural gas reserves of 220 trillion cubic feet. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
