Gulf Investment Corp back with a bang

Middle East Business District

After a catastrophic 2008, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-owned Gulf Investment Corp (GIC) have shown signs of an extraordinary recovery after announcing that last year saw them make a net profit of US$91 million.

Two years ago, thanks to the global financial meltdown, the GIC posted huge losses worth US$966 million. The Kuwait-based company that is owned by the six member countries of the GCC (Bahrain; Kuwait; Oman; Qatar; Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) said its shareholders' equity rose to US$1.75 billion at the end of last year, an increase of more than US$1.1 billion in 2008.

Located in the largest crude exporting region in the world, the GCC holds around 45 percent of the global oil reserves and contributes 16 million barrels of crude oil per day.

The GIC said in a statement its shareholders equity totalled 1.75 billion dollars at the end of 2009, seeing an increase of 1.1 billion dollars over 2008, despite that the global financial market was ravaged by widespread and merciless crisis.

GIC chief Hisham al-Razzuqi claims that the group has significantly improved its bottom line as well as cutting overall leverage and increasing its capital base.

"The initiatives to mitigate risks, de-leverage the balance sheet, optimise resource allocation and strengthen systems that were implemented have borne fruit, and the corporation is now well positioned to take advantage of the emerging opportunities.

"We are now on a solid platform for continued profitability and growth," he said.

Established in 1983 the GIC which has authorised capital of US$2.1 billion, focuses on developing private enterprise and economic growth in the Gulf market by offering financial products and services.

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Daniel Jones

Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.

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