OMINVEST AIMS TO FURTHER DIVERSIFY REVENUE BASE

25/12/2017 11:41 AST

The Muscat Securities Market (MSM) on Wednesday organised an investors meet and board discussion session for Oman International Development and Investment Co (Ominvest).

The event was attended by senior company officials, investors, analysts from brokerages firms and officials of the MSM and the Capital Market Authority (CMA).

In the meeting, Ominvest senior officials made presentations about the company's journey so far and also discussed its future plans and strategies.

Ominvest officials while speaking at the event revealed that so far the group was mostly focusing on six verticals - banking, leasing, insurance, real estate, investment banking and financing.

"This can be changed going forward as we are going to focus more on other areas such as logistics, financial technology (fintech), health and education," Abdulaziz al Balushi, group chief executive officer of Ominvest, said.

Balushi said the merger of Ominvest and Oman National Investment Corporation (ONIC) Holding, the first merger between two prominent investment holding companies in Oman, has created one of the biggest investment firms in the region and has given the group a flexibility to look for opportunities in other areas of growth.

Shahid Rasool, chief investment officer of Ominvest, said that Ominvest has been able to diversify its revenue sources with the merger of ONIC Holding.

He said, "It is evident from the fact that until 2014 earnings from our banking subsidiary Oman Arab Bank (OAB) used to account for 82 per cent of Ominvest's total revenue. However, as the group has taken steps to diversify its businesses, now the income from OAB accounts for around 40 per cent of total revenue."

On future growth prospects of OAB, Balushi said discussions with shareholders are currently ongoing about the possible route they would take for injecting more money into OAB as they want to ensure that shareholders should earn around 15 per cent return-on-equity in the long term.

He added that there are a number of options available to them including listing, roping in a strategic partner and merger with other financial institutions.

OAB, in which Ominvest holds around 51 per cent stake, remains the only unlisted local bank in the sultanate.

Muscat Daily