MENA Capital Holding

During 2013-14, MENA Capital Holding has continued to make substantial progress in executing the Company’s initiatives of the Strategic, Financial and Operational Roadmap which was undertaken in 2010 and 2011 leading to visible results evidenced by the strength of our financial & cash position with no outstanding debt. As a result of the exercise, we now have a business model focused on a balanced asset composition that will enable us to build a sustainable, profitable business that can create long-term value for shareholders through market cycles.

The steps we took to reach this goal remained largely focused on reducing the cost side of our business and embarking on selective acquisitions through strategic partners targeting risk adjusted returns. Meanwhile, we continue our efforts on risk management as a continuing process to identify, evaluate and monitor potential risk to mitigate the adverse economic and political effects of loss surrounding the Arab region and the world as a whole.

MENA Capital Holding continues its objective towards achieving an investment portfolio that balances growth/strategic investments targeting short to mid-term growth, and an income generating investment allocation to ensure a stable and sustainable income for the Company while safeguarding its liquidity position. The Company continues to closely evaluate investment opportunities sourced through strategic partners and ventures. To date, MENA Capital Holding has invested and committed 51% of its share capital in promising investments and this is expected to exceed a minimum of 80% of share capital before the end of 2014-15, in line with the Company’s revised investment policy.

We continue to closely monitor MENA and other global markets for opportunities and risks and are geared to take advantage of positive developments as and when they arise. We highly value the role of corporate governance in improving the overall performance especially in the current environment. Corporate governance in MENA Capital Holding is a combination of internal and external practices aimed at reducing risk exposures while protecting and maximizing shareholders’ value.

We recognize that the MENA region is not immune from the economic afflictions of the West and has not fully recovered from the impact of the political changes that continue in certain parts of the region. Therefore, we applied a new, broader and diverse strategy that we have started implementing for attaining appropriate risk adjusted performance levels. We continue our efforts at identifying lucrative opportunities to invest in the MENA region and Turkey; meanwhile, we continue to examine various investment opportunities beyond our original region of focus.

In my capacity as Chairman and on behalf of the honorable members of the Board of Directors, I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to our esteemed Shareholders for their continuous support and the confidence they have bestowed on the Company’s Board of Directors. Thanks and appreciation is also due to our strategic partners for their commitment, and dedicated staff for their perseverance and sincere efforts throughout the past year towards achieving the objectives for which the Company was established.