Kingdom Holding Company, the investment firm chaired by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, has announced a $50 million investment into First Hydrocarbon Nigeria (FHN), a leading upstream oil and gas company in Nigeria.

FHN transaction was through the second Kingdom Zephyr fund, PAIP II, said a statement from KHC.

Besides KHC, the PAIP II's investor base includes African Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, European Investment Bank, and Netherlands Development Finance Company. Fernvale Investments (Mauritius) Private Limited, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.

FHN was established in 2009 to capitalize on the exceptional opportunities for indigenous Nigerian involvement in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.

Commenting on the move, Prince Alwaleed said, “We invest in the gas and oil sector based on a strategic investment approach.”

Prince Alwaleed’s investments in Nigeria through Kingdom Holding Company are mainly in the banking sector via Citigroup.

Since its inception in 2008, PAIP II fund has invested $100 million in three investments, the KHC statement said.

These are: Thunnus Overseas Group, a seafood canning and processing business based in Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar; Mixta, a builder of affordable housing, operating in five North African countries; and Buildworks, a South African company listed on the AltX division of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, that provides heavy building materials and constructs electrical power substations and transmission lines throughout Africa.

KHC’s portfolio has its main interest in landmark hotel properties and hotel management companies, real estate development in Jeddah and Riyadh, financial services, technology and media, it added.-TradeArabia News Service