Topaz Energy and Marine, the Dubai-based oil and gas contracting unit of Oman's Renaissance Services, said 2009 profit rose 38 per cent to $65 million (Dh238 million). Sales rose 7 per cent to $448 million as investment in offshore oil and gas projects continues, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Qatar First Investment Bank

Qatar First Investment Bank (QFIB), which has paid up capital of $430 million, will deploy $250 million across the Middle East and North Africa this year but warned that 2010 could be no better than 2009 for the region's private equity industry, a company executive said yesterday.

"I think it will be the same as 2009, probably slightly tougher in the sense that sellers are becoming tougher to negotiate with," Emad Mansour, chief investment officer at QFIB, told Zawya Dow Jones on the sidelines of a private equity conference in Dubai. Economic malaise and lack of bank financing forced companies to sell stakes to investors to raise cash in 2009, Mansour said, but with the region emerging from the downturn acquisitions are becoming harder.

"The banks had closed their doors and companies were willing to sell stakes to get access to cash," Mansour said. Buyout companies suffered at the hands of worldwide recession last year, with funds focused on the MENA region raising $1 billion last year, compared with $3.4 billion in 2008 and $3.5 billion in 2007, according to statistics by the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association. QFIB, which was launched in early 2009, has a portfolio worth more than $700 million and has so far invested $200 million of its own equity, Mansour said.

Last December it bought a 71 per cent stake in the Sharjah-based packaging group Emirates National Factory for Plastic Industries for an undisclosed sum.

The company, which made five investments last year and committed $200 million, said it would target defensive sectors such as oil and gas, health care and industrials in mainly Gulf countries.

"We are real estate shy these days," Mansour said. "I think there is a situation of oversupply across all classes in the real estate sector, be it residential, retail or commercial." QFIB is close to completing a $200 million plus deal in the health care sector, Mansour added. The group specialises in private equity, investment banking and asset management.

Kipco Asset Management

Kipco Asset Management Co, a Kuwaiti investment banking and financial advisory firm, said full-year profit rose to 6.3 million Kuwaiti dinars (Dh79.9 million) from 1.1 million dinars in 2008, according to a company statement to the Kuwait bourse yesterday.

Al Mal Investment

Kuwait's Al Mal Investment Co, an affiliate of conglomerate Kharafi Group, on Tuesday said its loss widened to 12.36 million Kuwaiti dinars in 2009 from a loss of 8.27 million a year earlier. Losses per share widened to 24.09 Kuwaiti fils from 16.46 fils in 2008, the company said in a statement on the Kuwait bourse website. Earlier this year, Al Mal said it bid for an airport project in the Philippines that has an estimated cost of $1.2 billion.

Gulf Finance House

Gulf Finance House (GFH), a Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank, yesterday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Syrian Investment Authority to develop an economic zone, power projects, and phosphate mines in Syria. The agreement was signed on behalf of GFH's unit Syria Finance House, or SFH, which is under formation in Syria with a capital of $333 million, GFH said in a statement on the Bahrain bourse website. "SFH will take the lead in conceptualising these opportunities, draw up the necessary plans, structure the financial instruments required to finance these projects, raise the necessary funds and subcontract developers to commence with the work," the statement said. Last week, GFH said it was close to obtaining a licence from the Central Bank of Syria for SFH that would be one of Syria's largest Islamic banks and that will provide commercial and investment banking services.