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29 March 2024

Mubadala plans to produce Airbus parts in Q4

Mubadala Development has stakes in the Carlyle Group and along with Tata Ltd, the UK arm of the Tata group, it is also a one-third partner in Italian aeronautics firm Piaggio. (FILE)

Published
By Reuters

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Aerospace will start making Airbus parts at its new facility by the fourth quarter, sees a deal with Sikorsky imminent, and expects to conclude up to five financing deals this year.

The business, part of government-owned investment company Mubadala, will receive handover of the first phase of Strata, a composites aerostructures manufacturing facility, in mid-August, said Executive Director Homaid Al Shemmari.

“We are on target for the beginning of the fourth quarter to produce the first article to be delivered to Airbus,” he said.

The parts will be flap-track fairings for A330s and A340s.

Mubadala had set aside an investment of $500 million (Dh1.83 billion) until 2015 for the three phases of Strata, which will start by manufacturing components such as spoilers and flap-track fairings and eventually develop primary aircraft structures.

So far, Mubadala has signed work packages in the range of $2bn and is in talks for additional deals, aiming to reach a target of $5bn by 2020, Shemmari said.
Strata’s first phase covers contracts with Airbus, Alenia Aeronautica, part of Finmeccanica, and FACC, he said.

In November, Mubadala and Boeing inked a deal to co-operate in activities including composite manufacturing, engineering, R&D, training and maintenance. Phase two of Strata will include work for Boeing, after agreements on work packages materialise, said Shemmari.

A joint venture deal between Mubadala and Sikorsky, a unit of United Technologies Corporation, is close to completion and will pave the way for setting up a military maintenance, repair and overhaul capability, Shemmari said.

“The deal is almost closed so hopefully very soon we can announce the creation of the joint venture and the starting of the building of that capability,” he said.

Shemmari said Mubadala is servicing the UAE’s armed forces, but added: “The business case is so lucrative that we could be going after some of the Nato platforms in the region in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Eventually, the aim is to service military aircraft including Chinook, Blackhawk, Apache, and F-16, he said.

“I think it will be a much more logical solution to come to Abu Dhabi from Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever in the Middle East and North Africa area instead of sending things back to the US or even to Europe,” he said.

Through its aerospace financing firm Sanad, Mubadala is eyeing deals to provide financing and maintenance.

“We are working on multiple deals and hoping we will close four or five of them before the end of this year,” he said.

Sanad had signed a $100m deal with Germany’s Air Berlin for 12 spare engines and engine maintenance on February 3.

Talks with potential partners for Strata are also under way.

“There are three, four different entities we are working with at the moment,” said Shemmari, adding he hoped some would be finalised “very soon” while others closer to year’s end.