MENA Glass is a company established by Citadel and a group of leading regional investors to pursue investments in the promising MENA glass industry, with an initial capital of US$ 120 million.
Sphinx Glass' greenfield plant will be located in Sadat City, some 70 kilometers north of Cairo, and has licensed world-class production technologies from PPG Industries Inc., a global market leader in high-quality float glass. The 220,000 square-meter state-of-the-art factory will have a production capacity of 600 tons of glass per day and will sell to both the local and export markets, splitting its initial production evenly between the two. According to Sphinx Glass Board Member Ms. Marianne Ghali, "The new plant will be producing the highest quality clear, colored and reflective float glass for use in both the automotive and construction industries."
The plant will have the capability to produce glass with thicknesses varying between 2mm and 19mm. Eng. Tarek Salah, Managing Director of Projects at expects the factory to create 200 new jobs when it becomes operational; in addition, he says, "The construction phase, which will begin immediately and should be completed within 24 months, will employ some 2,000 workers."
Mr. Hisham El-Khazindar, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Citadel, noted, "This greenfield investment by MENA Glass, coming shortly after its US$ 70 million investment in Misr Glass Manufacturing (MGM), a leading manufacturer and exporter of glass containers, reflects Citadel CapitalCitadel CapitalCitadel Capital 's strong belief in Egypt's competitive advantage in the glass industry. We aim to develop MENA Glass into the leading regional glass producer."
Mena Glass To Build State-of-the-Art Float Glass Plant
MENA Glass, through its fully owned subsidiary Sphinx Glass, signed a €97 million agreement on Thursday, January 3, 2008, with Italian contractor Ianua SPA for the engineering, plant construction, assembly and supervision of a new greenfield float glass manufacturing facility.