Gulf Finance House Backs Energy City India to Serve Oil and Gas Traders

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (sugar Land, Texas). Energy City India (ECI) will be built on a cluster concept and will provide a complete business infrastructure to both local and foreign oil and gas producers and businesses involved in shipping, energy trading and support activities.

Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) has announced the launch of its private placement of $395 million to raise equity required to fund ECI which will be sited on 600 acres in Navi Mumbai in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The project will be located a few kilometers from Navi Mumbai’s new international airport ,which on completion, will be Asia’s largest and busiest air terminal. It is also located along the Mumbai- expressway, which is being developed by the Mumbai-Pune expressway which is being developed by the government as a key business corridor.

The investment is expected to yield a total return of at least 75% over three years and the equity issue is being underwritten by Kuwait Investment Company. The project follows the success of the Energy City Qatar project and is the second cluster project in a series of energy focused centers planned across the Middle East and India.

GFH CEO and board member, Esam Janahi, said that the local oil production industry and the vibrant energy sector around Mumbai and Navi Mumbai was already witnessing a steady expansion of energy related infrastructure and capacity in a national economy that was growing at a rate of 9.2% per annum.. A memorandum of understanding was signed by GFH with the government of Maharashtra in 2006 confirming the government’s commitment to the project.

Navi Mumbai is the new growth corridor of the state and is being developed using a master plan designed to decongest the city of Mumbai. Energy City will introduce the concept of living and working in one place freeing employees of the need to spend time commuting to and from work.

The private placement initiative for the project is underway. It is only open to institutional investors and has a minimum subscription level of $250,000 with subsequent investment multiples of $50,000. In Qatar, most plots for the Energy City have been sold and the project is now progressing towards the construction of site infrastructure ahead of the construction of buildings. GFH raised more than $500 million from regional investors to fund the development of the Qatar project’s infrastructure.

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