High credibility investors from GCC countries to share equity in Emirates Float Glass

"The tremendous interest and response from investors in the GCC region encouraged Emirates Float Glass to opt for the strategic long term partners to be stakeholders in this ambitious project. We will now have an interesting representation of strategic investors for Emirates Float Glass from the GCC region which is our primary target market," said Khalid Kalban, Managing Director and CEO of Dubai Investments PJSC.

"The fact that so many highly reputed investors from the region have shown their keen willingness to invest in this multi million dollar project is proof of the strategic importance of EFG in the Middle East, especially in the wake of the region's ever growing construction industry," he added.

EFG's float glass production plant envisaged at the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi is planned to be constructed at a cost of US$ 193 million, and will have an annual capacity of about 160,000 tons of various glass products. The plant will have a daily production capacity of 600 tons of glass per day with the product mix matching the contemporary needs of different market segments.

The design and process engineering of the plant, incorporating the contemporary technology adopted by PPG has been completed by the turnkey contractor for the project - IANUA of Italy which has been involved since 1975 in designing, building plant and machinery, commissioning and plant startup used in glass process transformation around the world.

Emirates Float Glass has entered into a complete technology supply arrangement and has signed agreement with PPG Industries, a global supplier of glass, coatings, fiberglass and chemicals with about 50 production facilities in the United States and about 108 worldwide. Recently EFG signed an agreement with Mott MacDonald, one of UK's top engineering and development consultancies to provide project management services to the facility.

"Emirates Float Glass is poised to play a crucial role in effectively catering to the growing demand for glass products, not only in the UAE but also across the GCC region. Our unmatched production capacity and quality of products will be the driving factors for us to consolidate our market position in the coming months," added Kalban.