Kuwait- Al Jazeera Steel dividend payment 15 pct 

(MENAFN - Arab Times) Global Buyout Fund ("GBF") announced today that its 51% owned Al Jazeera Steel Products Company ("Al Jazeera"), which is a listed company on Muscat Securities Market, will distribute 15% in cash for the year 2011, the largest dividend payment in the history of the Company.

In 2011, the company continued to report record results for the second consecutive year. It has reported a net income of OMR 3.0 million in 2011 (OMR 0.024 per share), a 59% increase over 2010 profits which stood at OMR 1.9 million in 2010 (OMR 0.015 per share). Revenues jumped 40% from OMR 64.9 million in 2010 to OMR 91.1 million in 2011.

Rajiv Nakani, Managing Partner at Global Capital Management said, "The GBF team has played a major role in realizing the Company's turnaround strategy through its tight supervision in the implementation phase, opening up new areas for development and strengthening the management team over the last several years."

He added, "The GBF team assisted the management team in creating a comprehensive budgeting and monitoring process, systemizing and organizing reporting standards and establishment of various committees from within the Board to ensure streamlined operations."

Sulaiman Al Rubaie, Chairman of Al Jazeera Steel, representing the Global Buyout Fund, commented on the results "We are proud to have another successful year for Al Jazeera and its stakeholders. These results are supported by relatively stable demand, a strong order book and improved contribution from the Merchant Bar Mill ("MBM"). Furthermore, these outstanding results could not have been achieved without the efficient inventory management, cautiousness of the management team and their exceptional performance in these challenging market environments."

Al Rubaie added: "Al Jazeera management managed to reduce financing costs in 2011 which reflected positively on its performance and is currently optimizing its capital structure in order to achieve better results. The performance of MBM improved significantly compared to last year reaching the breakeven point in 2011."

It is worth noting that since the GBF team took control of the company four years ago, Al-Jazeera has been recording continuous growth in all aspects. Over this period, the company has recorded a compounded annual growth rate of 19.65% in revenues, witnessed the turnaround into profitability in 2010 and growth in 2011 in addition to record high cash dividends in 2010 and 2011. During this period, the management, with the help of the GBF team, has followed an expansion strategy which started in 2009 by operating the newly developed MBM plant and penetrating new markets such as North America amongst others.