Abu Dhabi Basic Industries (Adbic) and Gulf Extrusions are seeking a financial adviser to work on fund raising for the pair’s $200m aluminium extrusion plant that will be developed in Taweelah.

In May 2011, the two firms announced they were establishing the Taweelah Aluminium Extrusion Company to build the plant, with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes a year. The new extrusion plant will be built alongside the existing Emirates Aluminium (Emal) plant at the Taweelah site, with Emal acting as supplier of liquid aluminium and aluminium billets.

Local and international banks received a request for proposals (RFP) for the financial adviser role in late 2011 and held meetings with the two project sponsors before the end of the year. A decision is expected in mid-January. Because the financing amount is relatively small, the main source of funding is expected to be local lenders.

Adbic is owned by General Holding Company, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi government. Gulf Extrusions is part of the Al-Ghurair Group, a Dubai-based family business. In April 2010, Gulf Extrusions dropped plans to build an extrusion plant in Qatar to focus on the Abu Dhabi project.