AlQabas reported on Oqyana's annual general shareholders meeting which was held at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. As you might guess from the latter statement, that's not a particularly favorable development. The MOCI doesn't rent out space for meetings. When a company has a shareholders meeting there, it's because the Ministry has instructed the company to hold one so that it can convey information directly to the shareholders, usually to advise them of regulatory and other violations by the company. These days the MOCI seems to be holding a lot of such meetings.
AlQ mentions two of the comments made by the Ministry: the Company's financials were delayed. And it had not registered a piece of property it owns in Bahrain in its own name. Oqyana's Chairman, Nabil Jafar Abdul Rahim noted that the delay was because of the delay in Stehwaz preparing its financials and Oqyana holds 100 million shares in Stehwaz (!). As to the second comment, he noted that the Company had set up a 100% owned Bahraini subsidiary to hold the real estate.
The Chairman also commented that the primary cause of the Company's loss of KD72.6 million for 2009 versus a gain of KD98 million the year earlier was the revaluation of assets. Or perhaps more precisely devaluation of assets. Shareholders' equity stood at KD369 million at FYE09 versus KD429 million the year earlier. Total assets were down from KD493 million to KD438 million.
Oqyana holds both Stehwaz and The Investment Dar shares in its investment portfolio. What value they are being carried by Oqyana is not clear. If you're not aware, all three companies can be considered distinguished business partners and members of The Investment Dar Group.
Abdul Rahim also noted that Nakheel had given the Company a two year extension to develop its property in Dubai. Originally the property was to have been developed within 42 months ending in 2009. Oqyana was unable to secure the necessary financing. So the extension. It's unclear but presumably it's two years from 2009. Recently, it's been knocking on the doors of local and other banks looking for between US$50 million to US$100 million in loans to move forward. But it has had no success so far.
As I'm sure The Real Nick can confirm, a real estate development company without access to loans is in dire straits. Sort of the equivalent of "The Donald" losing his ego.
On the subject of financing, the Chairman noted that the Company had obtained a loan from a bank in Bahrain against shares of Stehwaz. This apparently dates from more than a few years back given that Stehwaz has been in rather distressed conditions for some years now.
A new board was elected consisting of Mr. Nabil Jafar Abdul Rahim and representatives of TID, Safwat Real Estate, Efad Real Estate (also affiliated as a business partner with TID), and Adeem.
If you're not familiar with Adeem, you can link here to "The Navy Seals" of the Investment World! You can also use the tags "Adeem", "Stehwaz" and "The Investment Dar" to find earlier posts on those entities if you're interested.
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