Message from Dr. Aabed bin Abdulla Al-Saadoun,
Chairman – Board of Directors
The Arab world’s energy wealth is undoubtedly one of its greatest economic strengths. These resources represent enormous value but they cannot create economic growth without strong institutions that actively work to advance innovation, efficiency, and value creation.
APICORP was created by the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) in 1975 as a commercially-focused financial institution that can help provide nuanced and efficient financing options to the Arab energy industry. Over the last four decades, APICORP has worked to raise capital access and enhance the financial stability and performance of the Arab energy industry through an array of strategic equity investments, project loans, trade finance, advisory and research.
In order to play this role effectively, it was necessary to create a stable institution that the industry could rely on. Throughout its history, APICORP has maintained strong fundamentals – a solid balance sheet, low leverage, sound loan quality and high capital adequacy. Even during periods of low oil prices and economic crises, we have efficiently facilitated the availability of capital for the industry. In fact, APICORP has played a strong counter-cyclical role at times of unfavorable fluctuations in the capital market.
Over the years, the energy industry in the region has grown to play a vital role in the global economy. Today, the region’s energy industry is a strategic partner across the world, be it to countries in the developed world or to emerging market economies. APICORP has steadily expanded the scope of its activities and offerings to keep pace with the industry’s evolution. Our equity and financing portfolios, and our research and advisory offerings, have gradually evolved. To date, we have made over $16 billion worth of investments in oil and gas joint ventures; and we have participated in direct and syndicated energy finance transactions worth over US$130 billion.
I invite you to explore our website, which offers rich information on APICORP’s history, strategy, activities and achievements, as well as valuable industry research. In this context, I would like to thank APICORP’s shareholders, the governments of OAPEC member countries – Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Libya, Iraq, Qatar, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria — for their support of APICORP’s mission over the past four decades. We also thank our numerous partners, stakeholders and employees who have played invaluable roles in translating our strategy to reality.
While we look back with pride at our achievements, we also look forward to building on our track record to catalyse more value creation in the industry. Most importantly, we seek to make greater contributions to the Arab economies we serve by promoting prosperity, progress, and empowering greater enterprise.
