RIYADH: ADES Arabia Holding, a company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has secured a $1.6 billion loan from a group of banks. The PIF-owned company made this announcement at a press conference in Riyadh on Monday. It obtained the syndicated loan from the Saudi National Bank, Riyad Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi, Al Rajhi Bank, and the Gulf Investment Bank. It also secured a facility of $540 million from Alinma Bank. “This (loan) is very important for our growth plans,” Mohamed Farouk, CEO and managing director of ADES told Arab News. He said this funding will allow them to do organic and inorganic acquisitions. Farouk said the company will continue to explore new markets as it just signed a share purchase agreement for three rigs in Qatar. “We are also looking for opportunities within South East Asia,” he added. Divulging more details about the kind of services they are offering to Aramco, the ADES CEO said they are mostly providing their services on a long-term basis. “So, it’s not related to certain projects.” Earlier, Saudi Aramco revealed plans to increase its maximum production throughput from 12 million barrels per day to 13 million barrels per day. Farouk said most of these 1 million barrels will come from offshore activities and ADES will provide its services in those operations. As the Kingdom has set a target to cut its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2060, he said the company is working to provide technology and equipment to reduce emissions. “This will help overall picture in reducing the emission and reaching the zero target, hopefully, by 2050-2060 as per the plan of the Kingdom,” he concluded.