Agility not worried about Iraq pullout

Published Sunday, January 25, 2009

By Reuters

A possible US withdrawal from Iraq would not have a major impact on Kuwaiti logistics firm Agility because most of its contracts are commercial, its chairman said in remarks published on Sunday. Tarek Sultan told al-Rai newspaper that "government contracts, which include the deals with the U.S. army, do not exceed $1 billion, in comparison with the $5 billion of the firm's commercial sector activity."

Agility's contracts with the US army were not limited to Iraq and stretched to other areas such as Afghanistan and Germany, Sultan said, also mitigating the impact of any pullout.

Senior US officials said on Thursday the new administration of President Barack Obama had not yet decided whether to withdraw combat troops from Iraq in 16 months, as he promised during his election campaign.

Agility, the Gulf's biggest logistics firm, has spent billions of dollars on acquisitions in the past few years and now operates in 100 countries, according to its website.

The firm has bought a string of logistics companies in Asia and other emerging markets to reduce its dependence on US government deals to feed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Global Investment House expects Agility's fourth-quarter net profit to fall by 12.4 per cent, according to a Reuters survey last month.

Sultan said the firm met its 2008 revenue target of $7 billion.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.

The page was last updated on: 14 January 2016 21:24