About Project

The scorecard indicated rating is between Ba2 to Baa3 and is positively influenced by strong credit metrics while the actual assigned rating of Caa1 incorporates Iraq’s sovereign rating.

LOCATION      : Dubai, UAE

SERVICE           : Transaction Management

VALUE               : USD 5 million

CLIENT             : Kolak Group Investment

TYPE                  : Industrial

OVERVIEW

The Kolak Group is an Iraqi-owned family conglomerate.  The business has been family-owned since its founding in the late 1920s in Sulaymaniyah. It began in wholesale food trading and real estate, expanding into flour milling in the 1960s.

Since 2003 the business has been run by Mr Sa’ad Kulk, who is the grandson of the founder.  The wider Kulk Group has over 1,640 employees.

The group currently owns three main operating subsidiaries which generate most of the company’s profits and cash-flows, namely:

 – Royal Can Making Limited (RCMC) has been a leading beverage can and can-ends manufacturer company since 2010.  It is located in Al Sulaymaniyah, in the east of the Kurdistan region in Iraq;

– Middle East for Manufacturing Packaging Materials Company (MEPAC) manufactures beverage cans in Baghdad; and

– Pioneer Pharmaceuticals, which is also based in Sulaymaniyah manufactures, distributes, and promotes a wide range of high-quality generics and licensed pharmaceutical products, covering key therapeutic areas.

In September 2022, Kingston led a legal restructuring of the Group, proforma consolidation, and application with Moody’s in order to get a credit rating. This work concluded in November 2024, when Moody’s assigned a privately monitored Caa1 long-term corporate family rating (CFR) to Kolak Group Investment L.L.C. (Kolak Group), an Iraqi family-owned business, headquartered in Dubai, UAE, with 100% of its operations based in Iraq (Government of Iraq, Caa1 stable). The rating outlook is stable.

The scorecard indicated rating is between Ba2 to Baa3 and is positively influenced by strong credit metrics while the actual assigned rating of Caa1 incorporates Iraq’s sovereign rating.