Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company and India's Adani Group have signed an initial pact to invest $11.5 billion to develop an aluminium project in the Asian nation.
IHC and Adani Group will each hold a 50 per cent stake in the project, which will be in the state of Odisha, Indian media reported.
The project will include a refinery, a smelter, a captive power plant and a downstream aluminium manufacturing park, creating the state's largest aluminium complex.
It will have an annual capacity of four million tonnes of alumina and two million tonnes of aluminium, with one million tonnes per annum of downstream aluminium facilities. The project marks the biggest foreign investment in India's metals sector.
IHC, one of the most valuable holding companies in the Middle East, operates through more than 1,300 subsidiaries, with a presence in technology, infrastructure, financial services and the consumer sector.
Despite the Iran war, the company has not changed its investment strategy and will continue to deploy capital in global markets, its chief executive and managing director Syed Basar Shueb told The National in an interview in May.
IHC planned to invest up to $8 billion over the next six months in sectors including mining, energy and financial services, he said.
In January, Mr Shueb also told The National that India is a key focus of the country's global investment strategy. He outlined a broad portfolio of investments across the energy, industrial and property sectors, underlining India’s role as a strategic rather than an opportunistic allocation.
“We are investing in renewable solar power projects. We are investing in battery solution. We are investing in nuclear, we are investing in aluminium smelter and real estate development,” he said at the time.
India is keen to boost domestic aluminium production to meet growing demand, which is expected to reach 8.5 million tonnes by the 2030 fiscal year. The state of Odisha accounts for 54 per cent of the country's aluminium output.
The latest project is expected to create 53,500 jobs, according to an Indian state official quoted in local media reports.
