Business & Finance Group - Industry - Abu Dhabi: General Holding Corporation PJSC (GHC), Abu Dhabi’s biggest industrial holding company, plans to invest $10 billion over the next five year in petrochemicals, metal and other businesses, its Vice-Chairman said on Sunday.

The GHC, Abu Dhabi’s industrial arm, issued first-ever earnings report to the public and said net profit advanced 61 per cent to Dh1.13 billion in 2009 from Dh703 million a year earlier.

“We have several projects under study, which will be launched to expand the industrial activity in the emirate,” Hussain Al Nowais, Vice-Chairman of the GHC, told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of a board meeting.

The GHC board, which met under the chairmanship of Shaikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was told that net profit grew 454 per cent in five years to Dh1.13 billion from Dh204 million in 2004.

The GHC, which runs steel, cement, building material, engineering and construction, food, leather and other industries, is the third Abu Dhabi-owned company after ADIA and Mubadala that has made public its spectacular growth figures for the first time.

Al Nowais said that a polymer unit, a steel pipe plant and a metal downstream rerolling project would be announced this year. “We have plans to invest Dh3 billion in capital expenditure in the year,” he said adding that the company will invest into existing portfolio as well as creating new businesses.

“Total assets enlarged five-fold to Dh18.4 billion in 2009 against Dh3.6 billion, revenues went up four times to Dh8.6 billion from Dh2.1 billion,” he said. Al Nowais expected net profit to grow 20 per cent this year.

Strategic approach to grow

Shaikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of GHC, said the company has followed a clearly defined strategic approach to grow significantly over the last five years despite a challenging global economic environment.

“We have grown our industrial and manufacturing assets in Abu Dhabi by more than Dh15 billion over the last five years,” he said.

“GHC is contributing more than 13 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s non-hydrocarbon industrial GDP and employing a workforce of over 17,000,” he said.

With a committed capital investment of Dh9 billion, he said that the flagship Emirates Steel grew from a simple steel processor to become the largest integrated steel plant in the UAE with production set to reach three million tonnes by the end of this year and targets to produce 6.5 million tonnes per annum by 2014.