Dubai Group, owned by the Emirate, said it had paid US$49.5 million for a 30% stake in Malaysian biodiesel firm GBD Investment, as it seeks to tap booming global demand for alternative fuels.
The plant can use palm oil and jatropha as feedstock and would
produce biodiesel and pharma-grade glycerine for global markets, it said. South
Korea’s ECO Solutions Co holds the remaining stake in GBD.
Dubai Group is
the latest in a string of Gulf investors who have piled into Malaysian assets,
lured by the Southeast Asian country’s healthy economy, booming commodities
sector and fast-growing Islamic finance industry. In March, Qatar-based Gulf
Petroleum, whose shareholders include members of the Qatar royal family and the
Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance Company, said it would set up a US$5
billion oil and gas complex in Malaysia.
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