KUWAIT CITY, April 24, (KUNA): Aref Investment Group (AIG) declared here Saturday that it puts finishing touches on an agreement with local creditors for rescheduling its debts with the support of the Kuwait Finance House (KFH).
The KFH which owns about 53 percent of Aref Investment Group’s capital played a big role in restructuring the group and its subsidiaries, besides its role in devising a new mechanism for addressing the group’s indebtedness through signing a KD 132-million agreement, managing director of the AIG Ibrahim Al-Khozam said.
Al-Khozam added that this sum of money will be used in repaying the group’s debts owed to foreign banks and investment funds.
He also said that in case an agreement was reached on rescheduling the debts of Aref’s Group, the fisrt instalment will be due before 18 months of any signed agreement, namely the group will have enough time to repay, making clear that the group has currently liquidity to pay this premium.
He also pointed out that this facilitation will enable the group to focus on its investment activities and reschedule its debts in the coming stage without any cumbersome burdens on its budget that might lessen the management’s capability to perform its tasks.
Al-Khozam asserted that the group did not default on a single premium up till now though it grapples with an severe crisis.
He also said that the group’s plan is based on rescheduling its debts on the part of creditors and debtors in what makes procedures go in two parallel lines as it managed to address a lot of issues related to the commitments of the Islamic finance debtors which had their indebtedness go down from KD 142 million in 2008 to KD 52 million this year.
He also asserted the important role played by the Kuwait Finance House in bolstering the capabilities of the group and pushing it to go beyond the repercussions of the global financial crisis along with supporting its plans and strategies for restructuring that kicked off last year in order to pave for its strong takeoff in the coming period.
On the group’s financial results in 2009, Al-Khazam said that it is known that Aref Investment Group is operating in various sectors and geographical areas that felt the brunt of the global crisis, asserting that the group’s assets were not away from the negative impact of this crisis.
He also noted that the biggest percentage of the losses sustained by the group and amounting to some KD 127,5 million came as a result of the financial allocations that it set for reevaluating and amounting to 37 percent, besides 31 percent that represents losses resulting from investment in subsidiaries.
This necessarily includes the financial allocations of reevaluating the group’s assets, he added.
Al-Khozam said that the debt’s percentage to the shareholders’ equity in the group’s budget amounts to some 1.9 , a positive factor as it is relatively less than other groups.
He also expected that all restructuring plans of the group and all its subsidiaries to be finalized within less than two months through seeking the assistance of a worldwide consultative firm in what achieves in the end the long-term strategy of the group.
Finally, Al-Khozam asserted that there are three main goals of the this rescheduling system, the first is to repay debts, the second is to ease pressures on the company’s financial lists and the last is to study the best exit strategies at a time when the system is based on the centrality of goals and vision and the decentrality of implementation.
This invests the rescheduling system with greater flexibility to take off and resumes profitability, he concluded.