Business & Finance Club - Dubai: MBM Holdings, a Dubai-based investment and advisory firm, said it will invest $400 million (Dh1.46 billion) to build a plant in the United Arab Emirates to manufacture polysilicon, a material used to make solar panels.

The proposed plant will have an annual production capacity of 2,500 tonnes of solar-grade polysilicon, MBM said in a press release issued yesterday.

It will be the first factory in the Middle East to produce polysilicon when it reaches completion in early 2012, MBM said.

A new company has been created to develop the project.

MBM Solar Holding is a joint venture between MBM Holdings and Lancaster Holdings International, a closely-held company that acquires under-performing businesses in Asia. MBM Solar said the feasibility study for the plant has been concluded and the engineering partners have been identified.

The company is still negotiating with local authorities to acquire land and energy for the factory. The plants location has yet to be decided, it said.

The polysilicon plant will be developed in collaboration with ERC Private Singapore.

Ability to plan

"ERC Singapore is our equity and technology partner given their worldwide networks, technical-commercial expertise, existing management team and their ability to plan and execute a project in record time," Shaikh Mohammad Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum, chairman of MBM, said.