General Holding Corporation, the Abu Dhabi Government’s industrial investment arm, has registered a 61 per cent jump in its 2009 net profit which rose to Dh1.13 billion ($307.7 million) from Dh703 million the previous year.

One of the UAE’s largest industrial conglomerates and a major contributor to the emirate’s economic diversification initiatives, GHC said its total assets increased by 16 per cent to Dh18.4 billion. The company also achieved more than 16 per cent return to its shareholders.

Announcing the results on Sunday, Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman of GHC, said the company 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,' Sheikh Hamed remarked.

In line with its five-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 Dh3.8 billion.

'We have grown our industrial and manufacturing assets in Abu Dhabi by more than Dh15 billion over the last five years,' Sheikh Hamed added.

GHC vice-chairman and chairman of executive committee, Hussain Jassim Al Nowais, said, 'Mandated to create, optimize and champion capital and energy-intensive industrial assets in Abu Dhabi, we are currently contributing over 13 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s non-hydrocarbon industrial GDP, managing Dh18 billion 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, Al Nowais pointed out, 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 Dh9 billion, 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, he added.

Al Nowais said GHC was 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 (Agthia) and Arkan Building Materials 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, he added.-TradeArabia News Service