General Holding Corporation announces 61% increase in profits in 2009

H.H. Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of GHC, said, "General Holding Corporation is an integral part of Abu Dhabi's industrial landscape and has followed a clearly defined strategic approach to grow significantly over the last five years, despite a challenging global economic environment. With a diverse and robust asset base, GHC has succeeded in maintaining its position in leading economic and industrial development in Abu Dhabi, in line with Vision 2030. We have grown our industrial and manufacturing assets in Abu Dhabi by more than Dhs15bn over the last five years."

In line with its 5-year strategy, GHC focused on high value-add industrial investments that augment assets and pursued sound funding strategy for its investments, as evidenced by its strong liquidity position of Dhs3.8bn and balanced debt to equity structure of .89x. GHC achieved tremendous financial growth between 2004 and 2009:

• Total assets increased from Dhs3.6bn (2004) to Dhs18.4bn (2009)
• Revenue increased fourfold from Dhs2.1bn (2004) to Dhs8.6bn (2009)
• Net profit rose from Dhs204m (2004) to Dhs1.13bn (2009)

H.E. Hussain Jassim Al Nowais, Vice-Chairman of GHC and Chairman of the Executive Committee, said, "Mandated to create, optimize and champion capital and energy-intensive industrial assets in Abu Dhabi, we are currently contributing more than 13% of Abu Dhabi's non-hydrocarbon industrial GDP, managing more than Dhs18bn of industrial assets for the government, and employing a workforce of over 17,000 UAE Nationals and expatriates. Going forward, we plan to provide a significant push in the manufacturing and industrial sector by continuing to contribute to Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030's GDP projections. By integrating our value proposition and collaborating with other Abu Dhabi players, GHC is in a unique position to realize optimal value for the Emirate's economic transformation."

GHC has heavily invested in asset optimization over the last five years and the strong growth seen in 2009 underlines the financial and operational discipline demonstrated by each of its subsidiaries. With a committed capital investment of Dhs9bn, Emirates Steel grew from a simple steel processor to become the largest integrated steel plant in the UAE with production set to reach 3 million tons by Q4 2010 and targets to produce 6.5 million tons per annum by 2014.

GHC is highly committed to the principle of public-private partnerships and, over the last five year-period, has successfully restructured and privatized several of its businesses. Emirates Foodstuff and Mineral Water Company PJSC (Agthia) and Arkan Building Materials PJSC were partially floated in 2004 and 2006, respectively.

Going forward, GHC is focused on further investing in the petrochemicals and metals sectors, which will be driven by Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Corporation (ADBIC), its business development arm.