The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp), a multilateral development bank, has reported a total profit of $55.1 million for the first half of 2016.

The profit was marginally lower than the first half of 2015 ($56.5 million). However, this result was achieved despite challenging market conditions resulting from the fall in oil prices, the bank said.

Apicorp was established in 1975 by the 10 member states of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (Oapec).

As a further indication of the company’s financial strength, Moody’s Investors Service has recently affirmed Apicorp's foreign currency issuer rating at “Aa3” with a “Stable” outlook. In maintaining its rating status, Moody’s cited the increase of Apicorp’s callable capital in 2016 from $500 million to $1 billion.  Moody’s also noted the improvement of the company’s liquidity profile, with liquid assets significantly higher than liabilities.

Other factors underpinning Apicorp’s credit rating were a strong capital adequacy position, moderate balance sheet gearing, conservative provisioning for non-performing assets and the company’s sources of funding becoming more diverse and enjoying longer maturity profiles.

Since the commencement of the second half of the year, Apicorp has been very active, working on a broad range of financing and investment opportunities. Three transactions have already been announced: in July, the company launched a landmark shipping fund with the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), which will invest up to $1.5 billion in 15 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). In October, Apicorp issued a $300 million Formosa bond in the Taiwanese market; and, most recently, the company arranged a 3-year $100 million Murabaha Financing Facility for Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).

Dr Raed Al Rayes, deputy CEO and general manager of Apicorp, commented: “Apicorp has continued to perform strongly, delivering value for its shareholders, achieving healthy levels of profitability and fulfilling its mandate to promote cooperation and economic integration in the Arab hydrocarbon and petrochemical industry.

“We remain financially strong, as demonstrated by the maintaining of our Moody’s Aa3 rating. I am especially pleased by this, as it is a result of the risk appetite framework which the Board has put in place to instill a culture of risk awareness throughout the organisation. The fact that this has been achieved in a more challenging market than previously is all the more creditable.” - TradeArabia News Service