Saudi Arabia-based Arab Petroleum Investments Corp. (APICORP) plans to acquire a shipping asset and could close that deal either year-end or in the first quarter of 2016, reported Zawya.

“The pipeline is full. There are plenty of opportunities and actually you may hear something in the near future, a new acquisition, a new transaction we will be involved in so we are always looking,” the company’s chairman Aabed Al-Saadoun said on the sidelines of an Apicorp event in Manama.

“We are still in the phase of credit committee approval and then we need to go to the board”, adding that the deal was shipping and should be completed by first quarter of next year at the longest.

He also said that it was only one of several deals that Apicorp was evaluating.

According to Trade Arabia sukuk (Islamic bonds) have been reinforcing Apicorp’s financial position.

The company debuted in the international bond market in late October, raising $500m through a sukuk issue.

Apicorp is owned by the governments of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) and enjoys assets worth around $6b.