Emirates Global Aluminium delays IPO due to market conditions

The sale was initially slated for 2018

Chief executive of Mubadala and Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is ranked the top Public investor by SWFI.  Pawan Singh / The National

Emirates Global Aluminium, the UAE’s biggest industrial company outside the oil and gas sector, has delayed its initial public offering that was slated for 2018 due to unfavourable market conditions.

“It remains our intention to launch an IPO of Emirates Global Aluminium, but as we have always said this is subject to market conditions,” a company spokesman said on Sunday.

“Market conditions are not currently favourable, and may not improve until later in 2019. However, EGA has completed its preparations and is ready to proceed as soon as market conditions are suitable.”

In February, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chief executive of Abu Dhabi strategic firm Mubadala Investment Company and EGA’s chairman, said 2018 would be the year EGA goes to the market. He did not disclose the size of the IPO or the venue for listing.

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Mubadala is part owner of EGA alongside the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund.

EGA is expanding its operations in the UAE and abroad, with projects aimed at securing all segments of the value chain, from a $1.4 billion bauxite mine in Guinea to setting up a $3.3bn alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi, both of which will come on stream in 2019.

In June, EGA said its bauxite mine and associated export facilities in Guinea reached 50 per cent completion.

First exports from the African mine, which EGA fully acquired in 2013, are expected during the second half of 2019.

The facility is expected to produce around 12 million tonnes of bauxite, which is used to produce alumina, which is then converted into aluminium.

EGA currently imports all the alumina it uses in aluminium production, but last year it signed a three-year alumina supply agreement with Vietnamese miner Vinacomin. The Asian miner will supply for its two smelters in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.