Emaar's Kingdom deal still waiting to be finalised

The contract awarded to Emaar Properties by Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding is still conditional upon a number of agreements yet to be finalised and will involve Emaar managing the development of Kingdom City, a mixed-use development in Jeddah. In a statement to the Dubai stock exchange, Mohamed Alabbar, Emaar's chairman, said: "Emaar has entered into an agreement with Kingdom Holding, acting on behalf of the Jeddah Economic Company for the development management of a large real estate project in Jeddah, currently planned to include a one kilometre Kingdom Tower. "The agreement only stipulates providing Emaar resources for the management of the development process relating to the project and there is no requirement for Emaar to invest in this project."

He added it was too early to envisage the level of income from the project as it was still in the feasibility study stage. "We shall provide such information subsequent to finalisation of such strategy by the company," he said. The statement follows conflicting statements from the company about its involvement in the project after Kingdom Holding announced on Saturday that it had chosen the UAE firm as the developer and supervisor.

Mr Alabbar said Emaar did not announce the agreement as all the required agreements had not been finalised between the firms. He said Kingdom Holding made the announcement without informing Emaar. [e-mail]