Dubai Boosts Overseas Investments.

The UAE emirate of Dubai is investing heavily abroad. In January, Dubai International Capital (DIC) - the overseas investment arm of Dubai Holding which is owned by Dubai Crown Prince Shaikh Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum - acquired a $1 bn stake in DaimlerChrysler; two months later it snapped up the Tussauds Group, Europe's biggest attractions operator, for [pounds sterling]800m, and this month DP World, Dubai's state-owned ports operator, agreed to a [pounds sterling]3 bn takeover for P&O, the UK's biggest ports and ferries group.

The speed and scale of DIC's overseas acquisition strategy are ambitious. The FT on Dec. 10 said Sameer al-Ansari, chief executive of DIC, aimed to have 60% of its investments in Europe and North America, while the remaining 40% will be in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. But, as with the KIO, most of DIC's investments are opportunistic rather than sector-specific. And while both tend to be long-term holders of these assets, neither is likely to keep any investment which is not generating the returns expected from private equity and strategic placements.

Iran Is To Become The World's 4th Biggest Polycarbonate Producer: Iran by March 20, 2006, will be the world's fourth main producer of polycarbonate. This will be one of the products of Khuzestan Petrochemical Co. (KPC), a unit of the state-owned National Petrochemical Co. (NPC). The polycarbonate plant will start operation in the province of Khuzestan by March 20, 2006, marking the end of the current Iranian calendar year, with a capacity of 25,000 tons/year.

World demand for polycarbonate, a high-value commodity which is relatively new, is rising by an annual rate of 5%. Iranian demand for this strategic product is rising rapidly. KPC Managing Director Masoud Jamshidi was quoted on Dec. 6 as saying about 2,000 tons/year of polycarbonate will be for domestic consumption and the rest for exports. He said each ton of polycarbonate was currently sold for between $2,000 and $3,000.