To London yesterday to interview Homaid al Shemmari, head of strategy for Mubadala Aerospace, who is in town. We'll be doing an update for our pre-Dubai show issue on Abu Dhabi's sovereign investment vehicle, which is targeting aerospace as one of the sectors to diversify the emirate's oil and energy-reliant economy. So more on Mubadala in that 8 November issue.
Abu Dhabi's ambitions are impressive, but it's not just hype - everything is couched in a degree of realism. Mubadala wants to move from its current position where it is an investor in European businesses Piaggio (it owns a third) and SR Technics (wholly owned) and has moved into manufacturing with its Strata aerostructures start-up in Al Ain, to one where it is a global player in all these disciplines.
It plans to eventually be assembling a business jet in Abu Dhabi and to merge SR Technics and the local ADAT MRO houses and expand internationally, including into Asia. It also intends to move up the value chain with Strata, developing from build-to-print to risk-sharing, project managing, engineering contracts within five years. For the latter objective, it admits that it may have to buy capability in Europe or North America initially.
You can read more in our Dubai special.
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