Kuwaiti tycoon to invest $1.2 billion in Clark

MANILA, Philippines - A company headed by a billionaire Kuwaiti sheik may put in as much as $1.2 billion in the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), the agency operating the facility said. Kuwaiti-based M.A. Kharafi and Sons, owned by billionaire Sheik Nasser Kharafi, reportedly offered to invest in the airport after meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, an official of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said. But at the same time, CIAC president and chairman Nestor Mangio said joint venture guidelines call for a Swiss challenge in which any entity that offers a better bid will get the project. “Our long search for an investor for DMIA’s expansion is almost over," he said. If M.A. Kharafi and Sons wins the bidding for DMIA in June, the project will start in October and will be completed in 2011. The first phase of the proposed investment is a $100-million Terminal 2, an airport terminal, main gateway, a main boulevard to the airport. The facility will include a covered parking area, offices, conference rooms, among other amenities of an airport that is seen to be the most favored logistics hub in the Asia-Pacific region. A speed train will be a long-term part of the investment. Kharafi invited President Arroyo to Marsa Alam, which features a world-class beach resort as well as an international airport that was built by Kharafi’s company. “They did the airport, water treatment, and development of real estate surrounding the airport," Mangio said. The Al-Kharafi group’s interests range from engineering and construction, agribusiness and food industries, finance and banking to manufacturing and industry, real estate, infrastructure, tourism and leisure. The Al-Kharafi Group owns an estimated 16 percent of The National Bank of Kuwait, which is part of a consortium of banks that is rebuilding the banking market in Iraq. Engaged in build-operate-and-transfer schemes in the Middle East, South Africa and Europe, the Al-Kharafi companies recently built hotels, tourist villages, and a holiday resort in Albania, and the development of a $200- million golf and residential estate in South Africa. -GMANews.TV