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The deal, worth up to an estimated US$1.75 billion (Dh6.42bn), will see NIMR Automotive, one of Tawazun’s
12 subsidiaries, transfer the necessary technology for the manufacture of two versions of its UAE-designed
4x4 armoured vehicles, Emirates News agency WAM reported.
NIMR will also undertake training and development for a 300-strong Algerian workforce to operate the new
facility, which is scheduled to open next year.
The deal is a joint venture between Tawazun and Direction des Fabrications Militaires (DFM), a company under
the Algerian defence ministry. The aim is to establish a manufacturing base to meet a forecast requirement of
up to 2,500 vehicles for the country’s defence forces over the next 15 years. The project is to operate under
the name NIMR Algeria. Tawazun hopes the deal will help it gain more orders.
“It is vital for manufacturers to seek out new ways of expanding their business,” said Saif Mohammed Al Hajeri,
the chief executive of Tawazun Holding.
“We’ve selected DFM as a partner due to its high standards that match our own, as well as Algeria being a
gateway to reach other African markets, which could promote new partnership opportunities for us in the near future.
“It is a credit to our nation’s development that defence products made in the UAE are becoming rapidly synonymous
with innovative design and high quality.
“Being able to export home-grown technological know-how into another market within a short space of time is a big
achievement for NIMR and we are highly confident this [joint venture] will complement the excellent reputation the
UAE-based operation is developing with defence product buyers and users,” he was quoted as saying by The National
newspaper.
NIMR, based in Abu Dhabi , already supplies its 4x4 armoured vehicles, which have a unit price of between US$500,000
and US$700,000, to Lebanon , Libya and Tunisia . The UAE Armed Forces have taken delivery of about 500 of these vehicles.
It is understood that several other Middle East and North African countries have conducted military trials and are in
negotiations to order them. There has also been interest from Latin America, West Africa and the subcontinent.
“The agreement will see us provide the manufacturing licences needed for the newly created company to be the main
supplier of armoured vehicles for the Algerian military, as well as generate the potential to develop products for
customers across the African continent,” said Hamad Al Neyadi, the chairman of NIMR Automotive.
The joint venture “will work on final assembly on a number of vehicles and we anticipate that, following the
completion of the technical facility and personnel training, we will have a set up ready to fully produce 4x4 NIMR
vehicles by the end of 2014,” he said.
Major General Rachid Chouaki, the director of DFM, welcomed the deal. “Working with Tawazun, we are confident that
together we can build and train a work force which is capable of equipping our army and defence personnel with top-
of-the-line armoured NIMR vehicles fit for the region’s harsh terrain.”
Tawazun Holding is a strategic investment firm focused on the long-term development of Abu Dhabi ’s industrial
manufacturing and technology capabilities and knowledge-transfer with a specific focus on the defense sector.
Established in 2007 as a fully owned subsidiary of Offset Program Bureau, Tawazun Holding’s mission is to develop
profitable ventures through industrial partnerships and strategic investments that add to Abu Dhabi ’s industrial
manufacturing layer in the areas of defense, defense manufacturing and manufacturing technology.
UAE has been the second biggest arms buyer in the Gulf after Saudia Arabia, but the country’s success in sourcing
defence technologies and industrial partnerships is a remarkable example of the success of offsets programme.
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