Mubadala-backed EGA set to pick banks for IPO at $15bn value

Emirates Global Aluminium has smelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and a bauxite mine in Guinea. Photo: Courtesy Mubadala

Emirates Global Aluminium, the UAE’s biggest industrial company outside the oil and gas sector, is poised to select three US banks as lead underwriters for its potential initial public offering, sources said.

The company, which is backed by sovereign fund Mubadala Investment and the Investment Corporation of Dubai, is preparing to bring on Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase & Co to arrange the planned IPO, the sources said.

A share sale could value EGA at more than $15 billion, according to the sources.

Emirates NBD Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank are also expected to have roles in the offering, according to one of the sources.

EGA may add more banks to the listing at a later stage.

Deliberations are ongoing and there is no certainty EGA’s owners will go ahead with the listing, the sources said. Representatives for Mubadala, EGA and the banks declined to comment.

EGA is owned equally by Abu Dhabi fund Mubadala and another sovereign wealth fund, Investment Corporation of Dubai. Mubadala said in April it was close to a listing of the company.

The company has smelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and a bauxite mine in Guinea. With aluminium prices at their highest levels since 2011, EGA generated a record income of Dh1.74bn ($473 million) in the first half of the year, after a loss of $57m a year earlier. Core earnings were $950m.

An EGA listing would rank among the largest share sales in the UAE and would come at a time when state-owned entities are seeking to monetise their core assets.

Mubadala raised $731m in a July IPO of satellite operator Yahsat, Abu Dhabi’s second-largest listing.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is considering IPOs of its drilling business and a fertiliser venture, Fertiglobe, which could each raise more than $1bn, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

A previous plan to list EGA in 2018 was shelved after Donald Trump, US president at the time, imposed tariffs on aluminium imports from the UAE.

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan worked on the plans for the earlier share sale.