Last summer, GE and Mubadala Development Company, which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, grabbed headlines with the news that they’re planning an $8 billion joint venture that covers commercial finance, clean energy research and development, aviation and training for the region’s next generation of leaders. Yesterday, they kicked the deal into its final stage by completing and signing the agreements — which sets up a commercial finance joint venture that has the potential to dramatically impact the region and grow in scale down the road.
On the dotted line: GE and Mubadala executives, seen here at the Mubadala office in Abu Dhabi, nominated Ron Herman, a 25-year GE veteran (far right), to serve as CEO of the venture.
GE and Mubadala each will allocate up to $4 billion in equity for the joint venture, which will have two strategic pillars — access to investment opportunities generated through GE Capital’s existing global platform and building a Middle East & Africa platform with focus areas aligned to both partners’ strengths. Legal and regulatory approvals are expected in July, which will allow the venture to launch.
“The global financial services business proposed under today’s agreement combines Mubadala’s regional investment expertise with GE’s global origination excellence in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets,” GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said. “Having grown its Middle East-based revenues more than 60 percent in the past two years, GE clearly shares Mubadala’s view of high-growth opportunities in the region.”
Mubadala Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak added: “When it is fully operational our commercial finance joint venture will be a powerful player in the global financing sector and will generate sustainable financial returns for both Mubadala and GE, while the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Leadership Development Center supports our objective of contributing to knowledge transfer and the development of home grown talent in our economy.”
The leadership center is designed to be the premier corporate leadership and management development center in the region, developing the skills of high-performing business executives and leaders across the Middle East, Africa and near Asia region. It will form part of GE’s Global Learning Network and will leverage GE’s world-renowned “Crotonville” leadership curriculum, named after GE’s renown training center in New York that has long been used to develop the company’s own talent.
“The world has changed dramatically since we announced this partnership last year,” Jeff Immelt, GE’s Chairman and CEO said. “The fact that everything we committed to in our announcement is on track and proceeding as planned is a testament to the strength of the Mubadala partnership and soundness of our strategy.”
Forging ahead: Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Mubadala CEO and Managing Director, far left, told the local press: “We don’t want to box in this joint venture as a UAE joint venture or a Middle East joint venture, and we’re going to look at all the opportunities out there … We’ve always been committed to this partnership with GE. It has always been a long term commitment based on sound fundamentals.” Also pictured, from left to right, are Ron Herman, CEO of the new venture; Jeff Barnes, chief learning officer of the Abu Dhabi Learning Development Center; and Jeff Immelt, GE Chairman and CEO.
* Read today’s announcement
* Learn more about the Mubadala partnership
* Watch a video about GE’s leadership development efforts
* Watch a video about our work in the region
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Warm congratulations to both leaderships in this new partnership between UAE & GE. GE can and should be a vehicule of innovation and new technologies to many other parts, as well. I’m thinking in particular of the Nile Valley, of its renewable water resources and the potential GE can offer in producing the hydro-power necessary for the development in Africa as well as in the adjacent Middle-East. While at the African Development Bank, we undertook feasibility studies in this respect. These are shelved in the World Bank also. Now, that the world is changing, it would be opportune to up-date those studies and convene a Summit of the Heads of State and Government of concerned countries, may be under GE’s umbrella. The purpose of the encounter would be to gather the political will necessary to begin, gradually, this mega program.
Amb.Safwat Ayoub Ph.D.
Executive Director, SNRT*
*SouthNorthRoundTable, is a non partisan forum comprising scholars, politicians, public servants, military, businessmen and women, diplomats accredited to Canada,and students. Besides its role as a think- tank, one of its main objectives is to promote exchanges between our motherlands and our adoptive country Canada.