Kuwait Finance House gets nod to open Saudi subsidiary

Dubai: Kuwait Finance House (KFH) has obtained approval from the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in Saudi Arabia to establish Saudi Kuwait Finance House (SKFH), its wholly-owned subsidiary.

SKFH, with capital of 500 million Saudi riyals (Dh489.8 million), now is in a position to commence its investment business in Saudi Arabia.

Abdul Nasser Al Subeih, acting assistant general manager for the investment sector at KFH, said that the Saudi market stood out among the more promising markets.

Al Subeih said it was this promise that had attracted KFH to invest in the country.

Experience

With its wealth of experience in the real estate sector, most of the investment opportunities pursued by KFH have been in that area.

In view of the housing sector in Saudi Arabia that has spawned the need for roughly 1.5 million residential units, KFH earlier established a real estate company with capital of about 2.5 billion riyals.

The company has tapped into the potential in this sector and entered into several projects either individually or with business partners.

KFH hopes to become a key player involved with several development projects in Saudi Arabia on the strength of its global successes in markets such as Turkey, Malaysia and Bahrain and, more recently, Jordan and Singapore this year.

Diversified focus

The new business will be part of the efforts of KFH to expand in the GCC region and explore investment opportunities in the UAE, Oman and Qatar.

This will position the company as one of the most important corporations in the region through its businesses in the various sectors.

The Gulf area remains the preferred region for KFH since it has been least affected by the global crisis and due to the surplus of oil revenues in the region, said Al Subeih.