Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation announced the sale of its 12.5% stake in Bahrain National Gas Company to Kuwait based Boubyan Petrochemical Company.

The divestment was recently approved by Apicorp’s Board of Directors. The government of Bahrain has 3% stake in Apicorp. The value of the transaction was not revealed. Apicorp is the multilateral development bank of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting.

Mr Ahmad Bin Hamad Al Nuaimi CEO and GM of Apicorp said that “Since we invested in Banagas 33 years ago we have seen the company evolve into a highly successful leading local, regional and international company. As a result of its continued success, we feel it is appropriate to monetize our share in Banagas by transferring it to a strategic GCC based investor so that we can advance our plans to initiate and develop other oil and gas projects.”

Banagas was founded by the Government of Bahrain currently represented by the National Oil and Gas Holding Company, Chevron and Apicorp in 1978 with stakes of 75%, 12.5% and 12.5% respectively. The company’s principal business covers extracting and marketing propane, butane and naphtha, by processing associated gas from Bahrain’s oil field for the local, regional and international markets.

Mr Al Nuaimi said that “In order to ensure a market driven sale value for our shareholders, Apicorp implemented a highly successful three stage auction process in which a high number of regional and international companies participated. In the end, Boubyan, a strategic regional company specialized in chemicals and petrochemicals from Kuwait, won with the most competitive bid.”

Mr Dabbous Mubarak Al Dabbous deputy chairman of Boubyan said that “This investment represents the reinforcement of Boubyan’s commitment to its strategy of making strategic direct investments in successful ventures in the chemical, petrochemical and oil and gas sectors, especially in the hydrocarbon-rich GCC region.”

Dr Shaikh Mohamed Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa GM of Banagas said that “We have enjoyed working with Apicorp as a strategic partner for the last 33 years. We very much appreciate and commend the strong business relationship and teamwork spirit that we have had with Apicorp top management and Board of Directors and wish them every success in implementing their 5 year investment strategy. We also welcome Boubyan Petrochemical as a new strategic partner and look forward to working with them towards achieving Banagas’s future goals and objectives.”

(Sourced from Trade Arabia)