METAL RUSH

Although he's been at the helm for little more than two and a half years, Ali Al Baqali, CEO of Alba, has seen the company's performance go from loss-making in 2019 to ground-breaking in 2021. Now he's focusing on a new ESG roadmap to lead one of Bahrain's biggest companies to a greener future.

- JASON LASRADO

Ali Al Baqali, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), one of the world's biggest aluminum smelters outside of China, is 20 minutes late for our call. To be fair, it's for a good reason. He joins us moments after finishing a virtual meeting with Alba's investors to discuss the company's most recent financial results. He's in good spirits, which is unsurprising-2021 was the best year that Alba has ever had financially in its 50-year history.

Alba posted $390.4 million in profits in Q1 2022, an increase of 181% compared to the same period the year before. For the whole of 2021, Alba's profits hit $1.2 billion-532% more than in 2020. Investors are no doubt welcoming these results, with the company's market value more than doubling from $2.2 billion in 2021 to $5.8 billion in 2022, making it Bahrain's most valuable listed company outside of the banking sector.

To put this into context regarding its importance to Bahrain: the country's GDP last year was $34.7 billion; Alba's revenues accounted for over $4 billion of that. After oil & gas, aluminum is Bahrain's most valuable sector, and Alba is by far the biggest player in it. Aluminum accounts for 60% of the country's non-oil exports. As of 2021, Alba directly employed 3,135 people and around 1,000 contractors. "It was a good strategy from our leaders in 1968 when they thought to not only rely on oil gas but to have an aluminum industry in the desert too," muses Al Baqali.