By:Gulfnews

Dubai-based Emirates Gold found itself removed from the UAE’s ‘Good Delivery List’, which was quite detrimental to its operations. (Meeting the UAE Good Delivery standard is critical for refiners of bullion (and silver) if the bars that they make are to be traded and sold in international commodity markets.)

“This meant our refining production went down, which is the wholesale kilo-bar business,” said Abhijit Shah, who recently took over as CEO of Emirates Gold. “Our capacity was running at probably 30%-35%, even less at times.”

But in the months since the June 2023 decision by the UAE, Emirates Gold went to work on getting back into the Good Delivery List. Finally, in late November 2024, the company confirmed it was back in the fray - not just that, it even had a new owner.

The new owner is Bright East Holding 1, a entity that is based out of ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market) and that has built up quite a decent track record in venture capital and private equity deal-making.

It’s buying of Emirates Gold sure has out the shine back on the company. But that’s just the start of the comeback story, according to Shah. In an interview to ‘Gulf News’, the CEO lists the priorities for Emirates Gold to shine brighter.

Has production revived in full now that the company is back in the UAE Good Delivery List?

By this month, we should be back to our usual capacity, which is a ton (of refining) a day and two tones a day for smelting.

We also have the space and machines to produce jewellery in partnership with others. So, after Emirates Gold is done streamlining the business on the refining and minting side of things, we could reactivate the jewellery production.

That would be a natural progression for the revived Emirates Gold to be in.

Also, even when we were off the UAE Good Delivery List, Emirates Gold would still clear the annual audits by the Emirates Bullion Committee. The suspension was never about the operations or the processes we followed, but legacy issues.

Now, with a new owner, we are good to go to chase our growth.

How much of the gold you refine are meant for overseas markets?

About 50% would probably go to India or China and the balance 50% would be circulating in the local market.

But we had been supplying to Switzerland and the US in the past. Obviously, after the return to the UAE Good Delivery List, we would like to reactivate supplies to those markets.

The other big focus will be on other Asian markets, those making up the ASEAN territory. We already have good traction in those markets. There is talk happening with a lot of partners there to distribute our kilo-bars and minted bars.

"I want Emirates Gold to become the main supplier to most of the mints in the world...", says Abhijit Shah, CEO.

Actually, ever since the UAE started entering CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements) with other countries, we have been trying to push our gold by making use of these agreements. Especially in Southeast Asia, because there’s a good trade corridor that the UAE maintains.

We would like to buy the gold scrap from these countries, convert this into kilo-bars and then provide them the bullion.

The UAE is already one of the top suppliers of bullion to India under the CEPA deal. We hope to contribute 30%-40% of the supplies sourced by India.

Do you see your Dubai factory requiring a major capacity upgrade?

At some point in the near future, we want to start electrolysis refining on the gold side. Minted colored coins is another area of interest for this year. Basically, you could have a gold coin but in any of the seven or eight main colors to choose from.

Another entry would be to have a ‘blank coin’ assembly-line, which would see us supplying them to Europe or the US. Those markets have high labor costs, and we see an advantage in supplying the blank coins and then all they need to do is get those stamped.

That’s the ambition we have - of Emirates Gold becoming the main supplier to most of the mints in the world. 

Will all this require heavy funds?

On the funds, we have enough backing from the shareholders. On the refining side, we already have a decent installed capacity. So, not much of a need to expand that side.

On minting, Emirates Gold will definitely be doing more.

When it comes to silver, there is a current refining capacity of 3 tones, but I would like to see us add more there.