Amiantit Qatar unit to buy stake in Sarplast Qatar

Saudi Arabian Amiantit is focusing on the profitable markets for growth.

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The Qatar unit of Saudi Arabian Amiantit Pipe Company is to buy more than half the equity of a local unit of Italian rival Sarplast to strengthen its regional expansion.

Amiantit Qatar Pipes & Accessories, which is 40% owned by its parent, has signed an agreement with Sand Trading Company to buy a 51% stake in Sarplast Qatar Ltd for QAR7.5m ($2.05m), according to an announcement on Saudi’s stock exchange.

Sarplast Qatar is the Doha-based unit of the Italian pipe-making giant Sarplast. It has a two-line, 42,000 square-metre manufacturing facility in the Qatari capital that produces fibreglass pipes with dual helix filament winding technology. Pipe diameters range from 600mm up to 3,000mm, for operating pressures up to 30 bars. The factory produces 11,000 tonnes per annum of pipe products, with one workshop for prefabrication.

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Amiantit Qatar Pipes Company already offers the fibreglass pipes for the construction and industrial sectors in Qatar as well as the Flowtite pipe range produced by Saudi Arabian Amiantit in Saudi Arabia. The other stakeholders in the company are Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Co. (QIMC) and Trading & Agency Services Ltd. The three partners have been working together for 90 years, according to Amiantit’s website. Pipe diameters range from 25mm to 4,000mm.

Saudi Arabian Amiantit is the holding company for a number of pipe companies around the world, and also has subsidiaries producing rubber, iron pipes, concrete, insulation and plastic, most of them based in Saudi Arabia.

The company is both aiming to diversify and capture a greater market share in the construction supplier market following a 23% fall in net profit for the first half of 2011 and a rise in infrastructure and commercial projects in Qatar, a state second to Saudi Arabia for Gulf construction activity.

In the last year it has attempted to streamline its business lines to profitable countries. Last November it closed down three production lines in Bahrain onthe back of what it saw as a dearth in demand. In March it said it sold its stake in a South African subsidiary – Amitek – and last week it sold its assets in Latin America, making $6.9m.