Millennium Private Equity, the private equity arm of Dubai-based investment bank Millennium Finance Corporation, has announced an investment of AED92m in Kuwait Energy Company, one of t
Millennium Private Equity, the private equity arm of Dubai-based investment bank Millennium Finance Corporation, has announced an investment of AED92m in Kuwait Energy Company, one of the largest Middle East-based independent exploration and production companies.
The equity stake is the Millennium Global Energy Fund’s first investment since its initial closing in April 2008. Both Millennium Private Equity and Millennium Finance Corporation are regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority.
Kuwait Energy Company, which was launched in 2005, seeks to produce 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day on proven and probable reserves of 300 million boe by the year 2010.
‘We welcome Millennium Private Equity as our shareholder and as a board member,’ says Kuwait Energy Company chief executive Sara Akbar. ‘Walter Brandhuber, manager of the Millennium Global Energy Fund, brings nearly 30 years of oil and gas experience. The fund will help provide strategic direction to KEC, as well as access to proprietary exploration and production projects in the Middle East. MPE will add substantial value in support of the company’s growth vision.’
Brandhuber says: ‘We have strong confidence in KEC’s senior management team and in the company, which has an extremely bright future. Increasingly, it is becoming clear within the Middle East E&P sector that independent Middle East exploration and production players can add more value by being agile and focusing on projects that are smaller than the threshold of projects with which national oil companies compete.’
The Millennium Global Energy Fund and the Telecoms, Media & Technology Fund are the two lead funds within Millennium Private Equity’s family of funds.
