Newsletter No. 874
News-Analysis
January 12, 2008

 

JGC PLANS A PLANT BUILDING UNIT BASED IN SAUDI ARABIA

It has been less than a week since we wrote our last GCC round-up, which included several stories about Saudi Arabia. However, within about twenty-four hours of sending out that newsletter, significant new developments appeared.

First among these was that the Japanese plant engineering firm JGC Corporation announced that they would be establishing a wholly-owned new unit in Saudi Arabia to design and construct petroleum and natural gas plant projects in the region. The plan calls for the unit to be set up in Dhahran with an initial capitalization of about US$18.3 million and about one hundred workers. By setting up this local unit, the firm hopes to find more business opportunities, mainly smaller projects that might otherwise be overlooked.

It will be recalled that the JGC Corporation just won an order to construct an ethylene plant in Jubail worth more than US$1.8 billion.

PETRORABIGH INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING A BIG SUCCESS

We reported in Shingetsu Newsletter No. 814 that the giant Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company would open up an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in the company in order to raise additional funds. A recent report says that this event proceeded very well with its US$1.23 billion IPO actually being 21% oversubscribed halfway through the offer period. Most of these investors seem to be Saudi citizens.

Financing, it seems, will therefore not be a problem for the PetroRabigh project.

SAUDIS RECRUITED FOR TOKYO MANGA CONTEST

Japan’s Second International Manga Award event is scheduled to be held in Tokyo this coming summer. The Japanese embassy in Riyadh is trying to find some Saudis who might come and participate in the affair. Katsunobu Takada, head of the cultural section of the Japanese embassy, was quoted by the local press as saying: “We hope to see some Saudi artists in this year’s contest… This year we are presenting the invitation for Saudi artists to show their talent.”

It will come as little surprise to hear that this new annual event was established at the suggestion of the manga-fanatical former Foreign Minister Taro Aso.