Giant Emirates bank stakes on Sudan Airways

Khartoum, Sudan, Sep 6, 2004 (PANA) — The giant Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) is seriously considering buying a lion’s share in Sudan Airways
after the Sudanese government announced it was privatising the
national carrier.

Last month, the government invited foreign investors to buy
shares in a new company that would replace the troubled Sudan
Airways as part of a full privatisation policy, saying the
carrier was being restructured for a strategic partnership.

Last Saturday, Finance and Economy minister Zubair Mohammed Al-
Hassan said that as a nation, the United Arab Emirates has become
the largest Arab investor in Sudan with investments totalling 8
billion US dollars this year, an increase of 50 percent over the
previous year.

“The increase in UAE investors in the last two years in Sudan is
substantial, and we generously open the door for the UAE investor
because we know they are serious about generating a business
oriented environment in Sudan,” Alhassan told reporters.

A government source said DIB was studying the profile of the new
company to replace Sudan Airways and would get back to the
authorities in Khartoum soon, adding there was no doubt that the
bank would take up shares.

He said the Sudanese government will retain around 31 per cent of
shares in the new company, 20 percent would go to the Sudanese
private sector while the rest (49 percent) would be taken up by
foreign investors.

In his briefing with reporters, Alhassan noted that foreign
investment was on the upward trend in Sudan, reaching 43 billion
dollars in recent years mainly in the oil and gas sector, with
the major investors coming from Malaysia, China, India and Japan.

The 20-year-old civil war in southern Sudan considerably
undermined the country’s economy, preventing Western corporate
involvement in sectors other than oil. However, in the last two
years western investors have been flocking in, particularly the
French, in the domains of mining and infrastructure.