Zamil Industrial Investment Company (ZIIC), which recently went public following its listing on the Saudi Stock Exchange, plans to acquire more European factories and undergo expansions in its existing plants.

ZIIC's interests include air conditioning, steel and glass operations. Over the past three years, it took over air conditioning companies Climatec in Austria and Italy's Geoclima. The company's sales in 2000 totaled SR1252 million ($333.89 million). Exports amounted to SR470 or 40 percent of sales and went to more than 62 countries worldwide. "Despite difficult economic conditions in domestic and international markets recently, and construction inevitably being amongst the most heavily affected sectors, we have still been able to declare a net profit of SR196 million for the last three years, and distributed SR96 million as dividend among the shareholders at an average of SR32 million annually," said Dr Abdulrehman A Al Zamil, chairman of the Zamil Group.

"The balance of SR100 million has been kept in reserve to use for future investments ... The acquisition of new factories in Europe and expansions in (existing) factories by developing new technologies remain a major objective."