Kuwait’s KIPCO expects revenue growth to pick up

DUBAI / Reuters

Kuwait Projects Co (KIPCO), the Gulf state’s largest investment company, expects revenue growth to pick up this year, helped by its core investments in banking, insurance, broadcasting and real estate, it said on March 30.
Vice chairman Faisal al-Ayyar said in a statement the company expected revenues to rise by a high single-digit percentage in 2016. That compares with a 4 percent rise in revenues from continuing operations last year to 621 million dinars ($2.1 billion).
KIPCO forecast the core portfolio of firms in which it holds stakes – including Burgan Bank, pay-TV operator OSN, Gulf Insurance Group, United Real Estate and investment firm KAMCO Investment Co – would mostly continue to deliver double-digit revenue growth in the coming year.
“We enter this year with the expectation that it will continue to bring difficult trading conditions,” al-Ayyar said.
“While KIPCO is moving forward confidently along the track of doubling its 2014 profit by 2018 we expect these global market circumstances to result in revenue growth in the high single digits for KIPCO in 2016.”
In a separate investor presentation, KIPCO listed lower oil prices, the slump in commodity markets, China’s economic challenges, Europe’s problems and the refugee influx into that continent and elsewhere as risks facing the global economy.
In Kuwait, economic reforms were required to help government spending remain on a sustainable footing, according to the presentation and a spokeswoman for the company.
Kuwait is grappling with politically-sensitive economic measures such as cuts in energy and food price subsidies to help ease the pressure of low oil prices on its budget.