Dubai: Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development is to buy an alumina refinery company in the West African nation of Guinea to secure supplies for its aluminium projects which include the world's largest smelter, a top executive said.
The acquisition of the company, which also mines for the raw material bauxite, will be finalised in a week, Mubadala's chief operating officer, said Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi.
Mubadala is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, which controls more than 90 per cent of UAE oil reserves.
Mubadala and state-owned Dubai Aluminium are building an $8 billion smelter in Abu Dhabi that will eventually have capacity of 1.4 million tonnes a year, making it the world's largest.
"Our comparative advantage is energy," Al Muhairi said. "Plants are shutting down in the West."
Mubadala has had discussions with the world's largest aluminium producers such as Alcoa and Alcan, Al Muhairi said, without being more specific.
Energy typically accounts for between 30 percent and 50 per cent of the cost of aluminium production. Four of the five biggest holders of natural gas are in the Gulf, including Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Telecom licence talks
Mubadala said it was considering bids from as many as 10 telecom firms to set up operations in Nigeria after securing a licence in Africa's most populous country.
Mubadala paid $400 million for a licence to offer mobile, fixed-line and broadband services in the country of 140 million people with around 20 million telephone users.
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