A’Namaa Poultry, Meethaq sign RO 50m project finance deal
PROMISING VENTURE: It will be the biggest poultry meat producing capacity of 60,000 MT p/a ‘Poultry Project’ of the Sultanate with a
A’Namaa Poultry Co SAOC and Meethaq, the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman from Bank Muscat, signed agreements on June 20, 2017 to successfully conclude long-term financing facilities of RO 50 Million to finance the biggest “Poultry Project” of the Sultanate with a poultry meat producing capacity of 60,000 MT p/a, near Ibri, in Al Sawmahan Water catchment area. The Project will comprise of 240 poultry houses in addition to a Hatchery, Feed mill, Processing plant, Water treatment plant, other utilities and administration block.
Eng Saleh Mohammed al Shanfari, Chairman, A’Namaa Poultry, and Sulaiman al Harthy, Deputy CEO Meethaq Islamic Banking, signed the financing agreement at a ceremony.
Eng Saleh Mohammed al Shanfari said, “the company is pleased to sign the financing facility with Meethaq Islamic Banking and we look forward to mutually beneficial deals in future.” Successful closure of this business deal clearly indicates availability of Shari’ah compliant financing facilities in Oman reducing the need to depend on external financing for major projects which will contribute significantly to the growth of the company and implementation of its business plans.
Shanfari explains that during year 2016, significant developments took place and Oman government has taken a strong initiative on the food security of the country under Tanfeedh initiatives (National Program for Enhancing Economic Diversification).
A new project, A’Namaa Poultry Company SAOC, came into being (to set up a fully integrated poultry farm, with 60,000 MT per year of poultry meat production capacity) to reduce reliance on the imports of the basic food ingredient like chicken meat. Eng Saleh Mohammed al Shanfari also thanked the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Regional Municipalities, Ministry of Housing, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Ministry of Environment, management of Tanfeedh Program and Meethaq Islamic Banking for their support to the project.
Eng Yaqoob Mansoor al Ruqaishi, GM project emphasised that the project enjoys strong sponsors’ profile strong investors’ profile including 80 per cent shareholding from Sultanate’s investments arms & sovereign funds i.e. Oman Food Investment Holding Co SAOC, National Industrial and Resources Co LLC, Civil services employee pension fund, internal security services pension funds, Oman National investment Development Co and A’Saffa Food SAOG.
He further elaborated that the project aims to add to the Sultanate’s goal in diversifying the economic resources & generating new employment opportunities for Omani youth along with learning, and development of Omanis’ skills.
Sulaiman al Harthy, DeputyCEO Meethaq Islamic Banking, said, “Meethaq is proud to successfully close the long-term financing facility for A’Namaa Poultry. Meethaq is grateful to the Government of Oman and the management of A’Namaa for the confidence reposed in the bank. As the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman, Meethaq takes pride in partnering with economically important and viable projects and the association with A’ Namaa will further strengthen this approach. During the past few years, we have been successful in financing a number of unique industrial projects in various fields.
The success of Meethaq stems from its commitment to offer world-class Islamic banking service to customers. Meethaq is contributing significantly to the growth and development of the Omani banking sector and we are witnessing an upswing in Islamic finance and investment compatible with the provisions of Shari’a laws. We see a growing interest among customers to take advantage of the opportunities offered by Islamic banking and finance.