Emirates Global Aluminium, a major industrial player in the UAE, had its best half-year ever, and its H1-2022 net profit is now higher than its full-year 2021 total.
A net profit of Dh5.9 billion, as opposed to Dh1.7 billion a year earlier, was achieved because of “strong operational performance.” (The total for the entire 2021 year was Dh5.5 billion).
EGA has proposed an interim dividend of $600 million. The record tally meant it also paid back Dh2.9 billion on a corporate debt ahead of schedule.
“During the first half we worked to debottleneck our operations, optimise our customer and product mix to maximise our revenue, robustly control our costs, and set the course for future growth,” said Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of EGA. “We will continue to focus on delivering competitive returns for our sector, however, the global aluminium market develops.”
The numbers come on top of solid revenue gains, at Dh18.3 billion against Dh10.8 billion a year ago. This helped EGA bring forward a debt payment of Dh2.9 billion, ‘further ‘de-leveraging to strengthen the company’s balance sheet’. (Since January 2021, EGA has pre-paid Dh6.5 billion while making Dh968 million in scheduled payments).
“After our record performance in 2021, I noted that EGA could still do better and indeed we improved our operational performance across the value chain from mining to outbound logistics for finished metal,” the CEO added. “This enabled us to capitalize on strong market conditions. Our net profit for the first half exceeded net profit for the entirety of last year.”
The CEO continued, “After our record performance in 2021, I remarked that EGA could still do better, and in fact, we increased our operational performance across the value chain, from mining to export shipping for finished metal. “This allowed us to benefit from the favourable market conditions. Our net profit for the first half of the year was higher than our net profit for the entire previous year.
