Adac holds talks for developing logistics facilities

Dubai: Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) is in talks with potential foreign partners to form a joint venture to develop logistics facilities both in the UAE and outside, a senior official said.

The new company is expected to be launched in the second quarter of this year, said Saeed Al Mulla, Adac's vice president for business park development.

"We are in talks with four industrial and business park developers to form a joint venture," he told reporters yesterday.

Those companies are form the US, Europe, East Asia and Australia, Al Mulla said, adding that the idea is to tie up with a company with long experience in the business and benefit from its marketing and technical expertise.

The joint venture company will look beyond the logistics park that Adac is developing at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Adac has a five-year plan to develop the airport logistic zone in two phases to offer space to companies in businesses such as light manufacturing, aviation, cargo and freight.

The first phase is expected to be completed in mid-2010. About 25 companies have reserved space in the first stage of the development, which is due for completion by the third-quarter of this year. It will create 45,000 square metres of warehousing space.

Al Mulla said the planned venture hopes to explore opportunities for developing similar facilities both in the UAE and elsewhere.

"We have been approached by certain airports from outside the UAE but we have to first focus on the UAE," he said.

About the affect of the ongoing global financial crisis on Adac's projects, Al Mulla said: "What is happening will have an impact but so far we have not experienced it. There is demand for [logistics] space despite the financial crisis."