PKIC, Enertech ink $750m agreement to promote investments

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company Private Limited (PKIC) has entered into a strategic agreement worth $750 million with the Enertech Holding Company KSC (Enertech), a subsidiary of the Kuwait Investment Authority, to jointly explore investment opportunities and business potential primarily within Pakistan.

By agreeing to forge an alliance, PKIC and Enertech have paved the way for future projects aimed at supporting infrastructure development in Pakistan, said a press release issued on Monday.

The agreement will serve to enable advancement in the digital and technology sphere in addition to supporting financial inclusion and gender diversity. The alliance would not only bring foreign investment into the country, but shall also support technology and knowledge spillover.

The agreement was inked by Mohammad Al Fares, the chairman of PKIC, and Abdullah Al Mutairi, the chief executive officer of Enertech.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mohammad Al Fares said: “PKIC has a firm desire to support all important sectors of the economy. The strategic alliance with Enertech will help identify, invest and materialise viable investment opportunities in Pakistan, where both PKIC and Enertech would benefit from individual capabilities and knowledge structures of each other.”

Speaking about the initiative, PKIC’s Managing Director Mubashar Maqbool said: “We have cemented this collaboration to support priority sectors of the economy, including infrastructure, power, technology, housing and tourism, with an objective to socially uplift the poor. This strategic alliance would also bring in much-needed foreign investment into Pakistan.”

Yasser Malik, the CEO of Enertech Pakistan, said on the occasion that these projects would prove to be critical to energy security and sustainability in the country.

In the past PKIC has collaborated with the Meezan Bank Limited to design a Sukuk as a quasi-equity instrument to finance the local equity requirement of a 61-kilometre pipeline to deliver water to coal plants being developed by Enertech in Thar, Sindh.

This transaction, structured for Enertech, received two prestigious awards, namely the ‘Pakistan Deal of the Year’ and ‘Most innovative Deal of the Year’ awarded by the Islamic Finance News based in Malaysia.