International Golden Group (IGG)

International Golden Group was founded in Abu Dhabi in 2002 and spent two decades as the main channel through which the United Arab Emirates armed forces, the Ministry of Interior and other security bodies bought high-end foreign equipment. In January 2024 it was added to the portfolio of EDGE Group, the state-owned Emirati defence holding, which folded a procurement and support specialist into a group otherwise built on manufacturing companies. IGG still trades under its own name. Its work divides into defence and security procurement, systems integration, manufacturing, maintenance and support services, and training and consultancy, and the balance between those has shifted steadily from pure agency work toward local industrial content. On the procurement side the company sources arms and ammunition, armoured and multi-purpose vehicles, maritime vessels, radar and communications equipment, night vision and surveillance systems, field hospitals, anti-riot equipment, land and marine security barriers, and uniforms, then handles the technical support, spares and training that follow behind the sale. Systems integration is where it built its reputation. The clearest example is the Agrab mobile mortar system, in which IGG married a 120mm rapid advanced mortar from ST Kinetics of Singapore to a mine-resistant RG31 hull from BAE Systems, with ammunition supplied by Rheinmetall Denel Munition in South Africa, and delivered the result to the Emirati army under two separate production contracts covering 48 and then 72 systems. That programme also pulled Denel into a longer relationship supplying RG31 vehicles into the UAE. Manufacturing runs from the IGG Industrial Complex at Tawazun Industrial Park in Al Ajban, a production site built to move assembly and fabrication work inside the country in line with Emirati offset and localisation policy. Support services cover military vehicle maintenance and upgrade, technical assistance, navigation and air traffic control equipment, protection and security services, and information technology work for defence customers. Training and consultancy extend to military and security instruction and to the construction of live-fire and simulation training ranges. Under EDGE the company is positioned to give the group an end-to-end offer, pairing EDGE manufacturing with the procurement reach of IGG and its long-standing relationships inside the Emirati defence establishment. Contract announcements give a sense of the mix. At one IDEX cycle the company booked Emirati orders worth roughly 1.5 billion dirhams spread across drones, weapons and munitions, 122mm rockets and general ammunition, and a separate award covered ammunition for ground troops. Assembly work has followed the same pattern, with armoured vehicles put together at Tawazun from advanced semi knocked down kits shipped in between September 2020 and July 2021 rather than arriving finished. European investigative reporting in 2025 examined onward transfers of weapons sold through the company toward Sudan. The company operates as a public joint stock company and publishes little financial or headcount detail, and the price EDGE paid was not disclosed.