First Energy Bank invests BHD50m in Bahrain water and power sector(2)

First Energy Bank has acquired a stake of 9 percent for BHD50 million ($133 million; €90 million) in the Al Dur Independent Water and Power project, located on Bahrain’s southeastern coast.

Valued at $2.2 billion, the project will produce 1,234 megawatts of power and 48 million gallons of water when it is operational. The project is targeting completion in the summer of 2011. 

Kuwait’s Gulf Investment Corporation and French energy company GDF Suez won the bid for the project last year. The project will provide electricity and water to the country’s Electricity and Water Authority under a 25-year power and water purchase agreement.

First Energy Bank has also invested $15 million in Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat recently. The investment was made out of a $140 million syndicated Ijara facility and will be used to refinance three aircrafts belonging to the national carrier Gulf Air. Ijara refers to an Islamic form of leasing.

Based in Manama, First Energy Bank is backed by Islamic investment firm Gulf Finance House. The bank makes investments throughout the Middle East North Africa region in the development, production, transportation, storage, refining and distribution of hydrocarbons, oilfield services and energy sector technologies.

The Kingdom’s energy sector received another boost in June. Then, the private equity arm of Bahrain-based Unicorn Investment Bank acquired a stake of 70 percent for an undisclosed sum in Bahrain Maintenance and Diving Services, an oil and gas services company.