By Mohammad Shoeb
DOHA: Aamal Maritime Transportation Services (AMTS), a newly established subsidiary of Aamal Company, is looking to acquire more vessels to expand its operations, a senior official of the Company said.
“We started our operations with one ship, which was very encouraging and successful. The Company’s Board was very happy with the AMTS’ performance ,and decided to acquire the second vessel. So if we come across with some attractive opportunities we would definitely like to have the third ship or even more,” Sheikh Mohamed bin Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani (pictured), Vice Chairman of Aamal Company told The Peninsula on the sidelines of its AGM on Sunday.
Sheikh Mohamed added: “Earlier all the ships that we used transporting different kinds of goods and materials were rented ones. So we saw the opportunity and established AMTS with one ship. Currently we have two each with the capacity of between 50,000 and 60,000 tonnes, and looking forward to expand our operations in the coming years.”
Aamal holds one percent of the shares in AMTS directly, while the remaining 99 percent is held by Gulf Rocks, another subsidiary of Aamal. However, the Group (Aamal Company) has an overall effective interest of 74.75 percent in AMTS. The company transport aggregates such as gabbros, limestone and other primary raw materials from Al Fujairah in the UAE to Mesaieed Industrial City in Qatar. It ensures security of supply for Gulf Rocks, and also makes capacity available to third party operators to optimizse vessels’ utilisation rates and profitability. These vessels are also capable of shipping industrial and non-industrial materials.
Aamal Company is one of the GCC’s fastest growing diversified conglomerates, with a market capitalisation of QR8.3bn ($2.2 bn) as on April 14, 2016. The Group has four major divisions which include Real Estate and Property, Industrial Manufacturing, Trading and Distribution and Managed Services. The Company generated total revenues of QR2.9bn ($ 791.4 m) in 2015.
The Company has an exhaustive list of subsidiaries, but some of the prominent ones include Aamal Readymix, Aamal Cement Industries, Advanced Pipes & Casts Company, Innovative lighting, Senyar Industries Qatar Holding, Doha Cables, Elsewedy Cables Qatar, Doha Transformers, Ci-San Trading, Gulf Rocks, Aamal Trading and Distribution, Aamal Medical, Ebn Sina Medical, Ebn Sina Health Care Solutions, Foot Care Center, Al Farazdaq Company, and Aamal Optical Supplies, City Center Doha, Aamal Real Estate and Aamal ECE, Aamal Travel LCC, Aamal Services, ECCO Gulf and Johnson Controls Qatar.
On plans of overseas expansion, Sheikh Mohamed, said: “We have established a very efficient team to take care of our well-diversified investments within Qatar. Setting up operations outside the country is currently not on our agenda.”
Company’s net profits in 2015 increased by 9.4 percent to QR QR656.7m. But, despite the excellent performance, the Company’s board decided not to distribute dividends to its shareholders this year keeping in view the current economic outlook.
However, the Vice-Chairman of Aamal expressed his firm confidence saying that the decision will not upset shareholders and also not have any adverse impact on the performance of the Aamal’s stocks.
“Aamal shareholders are long-term investors who are very loyal to the Company. They are well aware about the current market situation and also about the vision and mission of the Group, which aspire to become one of the biggest diversified companies in Qatar and GCC.” The Peninsula
