Mar 2008 Financial News

CL methanol plant for Saudi Arabia, Duprey spreads his wings

Mar 18, 2008

Discussions are under way for local conglomerate CL Financial to build a methanol plant in Saudi Arabia and establish a presence in East Africa following recent visits to both territories by group executive chairman Lawrence Duprey.

Duprey, who was accompanied by CL Financial executive Carlos John, stated that the decision was taken to establish a presence in the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf State countries to spread the group’s customer base in those rapidly developing parts of the world.

The proposed Saudi plant will follow the successful start-up of a methanol plant in Oman in which the regional conglomerate branch of CL Financial has a substantial shareholding.

Discussions are also under way to build a second plant in Oman.

Duprey stated that subsidiaries are accordingly being established in the financial services and energy sectors with real estate and resort development to follow.

This follows the group’s expansion in India, Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as Oman in both the energy and manufacturing sectors.

The new CL Financial subsidiaries in the Middle East would be known as CL Holdings-Mena (Middle East and North AFrica) and CL Global Brokerage (Abu Dhabi).

An insurance brokerage firm planned for Abu Dhabi will be the first to begin operations.

Noting the enormous potential of these markets, Duprey said the group believes these strategic moves are necessary at this time for the development of the company beyond its current borders.

The new areas of expansion—backed by the group’s directors—will ensure CL Financial will continue its growth, he said.

Regarding CL Financial’s East African presence, the group initiated CL Financial (Tanzania) Limited last week during Duprey’s visit with high level Government and private sector officials of that country.

A Memorandum of Understanding is currently being formulated for signing in May.

Duprey met with the Tanzanian ministers of Finance and Energy and the Governor of that country’s Central Bank, as well as industrial executives and directors of that country’s investment and export entities.

At a dinner in Duprey’s honour, officials confirmed keen interest in having CL Financial commence early operations.

Source:
Gail Alexander
The Trinidad Guardian, Page 19
Tuesday March 18, 2008

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business3.html