Dubai Cable Company (Ducab), the Middle East's power cable and wires manufacturing major, will invest around AED1 billion ($274 million) in two new facilities in the region to meet the growing demand for its products, a top Ducab official told Zawya.
Andrew Shaw, managing director of Ducab , said the expansion plans were part of the company's 5-year plan, which has been approved by the Ducab 's board of directors. "We are going to invest in two manufacturing units overseas in the coming five years and it will be a greenfield development," he said, adding that the area of investment could include the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
"Iraq and Libya are good markets for our sales, but due to the current turmoil we wouldn't favor setting up manufacturing operations over there, but look for alternative opportunities in neighboring countries such as Turkey, which could act as a gateway to the Iraqi market, and can be an ideal location for our operations," he added.
"We have two main objectives at the moment, that is to add more specialized cables to our production and expand into overseas markets in the foreseeable future," he explained.
He said the funding for the new facilities will be a combination of internally generated funds and bank loans. "We will partly rely on bank finance, in addition to sufficient internal funds from our revenues. In the company's more than 30-year history we have always been managing this way and have never requested funding from our shareholders," said Shaw.
Zawya
26 April
