Middle East’s largest aluminum producer eyes IPO listing amid skyrocketing profits

Emirates Global Aluminum PJSC (EGA) recently posted record profits for January-June 2021 amid a rise in commodity prices, and is now looking to proceed with plans to go public in the near future.

The company’s income in the first half of 2021 was around 1.74 billion dirhams ($473 million). EGA said that its first-half results were the strongest ever. The company's revenue for the first six months of 2021 stood at $2.9 billion, compared with $2.4 billion last year.

According to EGA’s chief financial officer, Zouhir Regragui, both the post-pandemic economic recovery and the global move towards clean energy provide for a positive outlook on aluminum demand, which will lead to a further surge in profits.

“We are bullish about prices,” Regragui said in an statement, as cited by Reuters.

“I am confident that our performance will continue to improve, making EGA increasingly attractive should our shareholders decide to proceed with an IPO, which would be one of the largest ever for the United Arab Emirates (UAE),” EGA’s CEO Abdulnasser bin Kalban stated in an interview.

EGA belongs to two sovereign wealth funds – Investment Corporation of Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company. The latter said earlier this year that it was close to listing an IPO with an estimated value of some $15 billion to $20 billion.
Despite rising profits, however, EGA’s production dropped in 2021, while sales fell 6% to 1.18 million tons compared to the final quarter of 2020. The firm explained the plunge with reference to logistics troubles and its current moves to upgrade the company’s carbon plants, Bloomberg reported.

EGA said it will continue to focus on producing premium aluminum of higher value, amounting to 86% of the company’s sales in 2021, up from 69% last year. It’s also planning to sell more low-carbon aluminum after it began producing using solar energy earlier this year. EGA and BMW AG recently signed a supply deal for the metal worth around $120 million.

Aluminum is a highly versatile metal that can be used for power lines, electronic components and electric vehicles. It has been gaining popularity over the past year, with futures in London rallying nearly 35% to $2,655 per ton, the metal’s highest price in the past 10 years.

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