Gulf Finance opens new office to serve SMEs

Gulf Finance marked its third anniversary by opening its new head office and branch in Jeddah.
During its three-year presence in the Kingdom, Gulf Finance has become one of the major providers of Shariah-compliant finance to SMEs focusing on heavy equipment, plant and machinery.
The company first established its presence in Jeddah in 2012 and expanded into the Central Region with a new branch in Riyadh in 2015.
Gulf Finance currently employs over 40 staff members, of which 60 percent are local Saudi employees. It has over 200 clients in a range of sectors such as contracting, manufacturing, industrial, property, logistics and retail and has successfully grown its asset book to over SR200 million, as of Dec. 31, 2015.
Thamer Jan, chairman of the board of directors, Gulf Finance Saudi Arabia, said: “Our new office in Jeddah extends our reach Kingdomwide and allows us to penetrate further into the SME fabric, where small businesses are estimated to account for 90 percent of registered business and 60 percent of employment. With a sizable SME market and the government’s ambitious policies of diversifying its private sector, there is an increasing need for Shariah-compliant lending.”
Gulf Finance Saudi Arabia was originally established as Gulf Installment Company in November 2012, in Jeddah, to provide installment finance for SMEs. This was part of Gulf Finance’s strategic expansion plan, headed by current CEO David Hunt.
In 2014, the company received a new license from Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) that allowed Gulf Finance Corporation to practice in three finance activities — Ijara for finance lease, ijara for financing production assets, and ijara for financing SMEs.
In January 2015, the company changed its name to Gulf Finance Corporation PJSC and committed a minimum capital of SR100 million as part of the license process.