QFIB board members during their visit to Aramco.
Doha: Qatar First Investment Bank (QFIB), Qatar’s first independent Shariah compliant bank regulated by Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority, held its board meeting in Dammam, the largest city in the Eastern Province of the Saudi Arabia on March 3.
The meeting was chaired by QFIB Chairman Abdulla Fahad Ghorab Al Marri. Since its launch in 2009, QFIB has scheduled board meetings every year in a different GCC country to reach out to its diversified base of shareholders. Dammam is the most oil rich region in the world, and in close proximity to Dhahran that houses Saudi Aramco, one of the biggest oil companies in the world.
Taking this opportunity, QFIB Board and Senior Management visited the company to get a deeper insight into the company’s operations specifically in the production and exploration fields.
QFIB takes a special interest in the oil and gas sector as it is the backbone of the GCC economies. To date, QFIB has invested over QR400m in this vibrant sector.
QFIB Vice Chairman Sheikh Ibrahim Mohamed Al Abdul Aziz Al Jomaih, a leading Saudi businessman hosted a dinner on the sidelines of the board meeting. Government officials, owners of family businesses and CEOs of leading institutions in Saudi attended the dinner.
QFIB CEO Emad Mansour delivered a presentation about the bank, providing an overview of the bank’s main lines of business, sector and geographic focus, current portfolio of investments and future growth plans.
Commenting on the Saudi trip, QFIB Chairman Abdulla Ghorab Al Marri, said: “Since inception, our strategy was to hold an annual board meeting in each of the GCC countries that are represented on our Board. As the largest GCC country, and one of the world’s biggest oil producing countries, Saudi Arabia is an important market for us. We thank Al Jomaih for hosting the dinner. Such a gathering provides a good platform to network and generate awareness about QFIB as well explore investment opportunities with leading businessmen. It is also a chance to reach out to our Saudi shareholders and provide an update about the bank’s achievements.”
Vice Chairman of QFIB, Al Jomaih, added: “Our role as board members is to support the management in promoting the bank’s expertise. Such events provide a great networking platform for our shareholders to gain a better understanding of the bank’s activities and gain insight into potential investment prospects. The Saudi market has a very positive outlook, buoyed by optimistic projections for 2013. We hope this gathering was successful in bringing the bank closer to potential investors.”
The Peninsula
