Abu Dhabi: The newly established Emirates Defence Industries Company (Edic) is planning a second and third phase of integration after eleven companies from the subsidiaries of Mubadala Development Company, Tawazun Holding and Emirates Advanced Investment Group merged in December, its chairman said on Monday.
“There will be a second phase of integration with probably four companies. A third phase will be at a later stage,” said Edic chairman Homaid Al Shemmari, speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi.
He said it’s going to take about year and half to two years to complete the process and harmonise the strategy of all the assets, create value and identify synergies.
“Edic would become the primary player in the defence industry in the UAE. The idea is to have one platform for all the government departments to deal with in the defence sector.”
The eleven companies which integrated to form Edic in December have about 4,800 workers in total, Al Shemmari said.
“The total assets for the eleven companies are Dh3.2 billion and the revenue in 2014 came to about Dhs3.6 billion. As of first of January Edic took over those eleven companies,” he said.
Al Shemmari said he is upbeat about the growth of the company. “We are not talking about starting new businesses. This is about eleven companies that are out there already creating jobs and revenues and delivering services to the armed forces.”
“We’ve been very patient and slow in a lot of activities because we don’t want to impact the operational capabilities of the assets because they are managing big relationship with armed forces.”
When asked whether there would be any job cuts due to merger of companies, he said they are not looking at it at the moment.
“Generally the idea of merging is job cuts, but in our mind it is not. We will be looking at a long-term strategy of where do these assets fit, where do these capabilities fit, how do we manage that?,”
“Will be there be job losses, may be. I am not saying we are actually doing it because of cost cutting. I am hoping the scope and capabilities will enlarge, hence business will sizeably be bigger, then we can rotate and reassign without actually having to terminate people, specially Emiratis. But if it comes to that, so be it. But I am not giving the management team that direction. We have one and half years to look at it.”
The company will announce the second phase of integration during the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (Idex) starting next week. The company will join Mubadala and Tawazun on the largest ever stand since the founding of the exhibition in 1993.
The stand will feature a total of 29 companies showcasing the latest developments and innovations from the UAE’s defence industry.
