MILAN, June 23 (Class Editori) - The wind from the east has blown strongly, by tracing a new route for SNAM. The group guided by the CEO Marco Alverà, in partnership with some of the most important international investment funds, has signed an agreement today with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the largest energy operators worldwide, in order to acquire 49% of the Abu Dhabi networks: at the moment, this is the biggest operation in energy infrastructures which occurred in 2020 worldwide.
In detail, according to the operation, the consortium in which SNAM takes part together with Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Brookfield Asset Management, GIC (the sovereign fund of Singapore), Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and NH Investment & Securities, will acquire 49% of the ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets LLC (ADNOC Gas Pipelines); for the next 20 years, the latter will hold the management rights - remunerated at rate - of the infrastructures (38 gas pipelines) that link the ADNOC upstream activities to the consumption points of Abu Dhabi and the export and interconnection terminals towards the neighboring Emirates. The remaining share of ADNOC Gas Pipelines (51%) will continue to be held by the giant of Abu Dhabi.
The operation is the first acquisition carried out by SNAM outside the European borders and the 100% of ADNOC Gas Pipelines is considered worth about 20.7 billion dollars (while the share of 49% is worth 10.1 billion dollars). The consortium, as explained by MF-Milano Finanza on June 2, in which SNAM is the sole industrial operator, has obtained a financing amounting at about 8 billion dollars by a pool made up of 20 international banks. The equity contribution is proportionally distributed among the consortium members: all of them hold equal shares, with the only exception of the group leader GIP. In particular, SNAM, will spend almost 250 million dollars from its own resources.
As Alverà has explained, “with this strategic agreement we strengthen our international presence by entering in a country and in a region which play a central role in the energy sector, by further reinforcing the role of Italy in the Gulf area. We are aiming at promoting further opportunities of collaboration, in particular in the energy transition”. For this reason, as Alverà has added, “we will work together with ADNOC and the consortium partners by focusing on our industrial skills and our innovative solutions in managing infrastructures, in order to give a contribution to the UAE energy system. We have signed this agreement by entirely remote working in the last months, and this gives an evidence of SNAM resilience and its strong determination in going on with the growing path of the previous years”.
The Sultan Al Jaber- State Minister of the UAE and CEO of ADNOC - is proud to “establish a new partnership with some of the main institutional and infrastructure investors worldwide for the most important transition in the energy infrastructures of the region. This historical operation proves the trust of the international financial community towards ADNOC and creates a significant value from our infrastructure activities, after the innovative operation of last year on our pipelines. The investment, which has been announced today, has confirmed the strong interest in ADNOC valuable assets and represents a further point of reference for big investments in energy and infrastructures in the UAE and in the region. In the end, the agreement strengthens the ADNOC role as attractive partner and reinforces the position of our country as international investments’ destination, even during an unprecedented context”. (All rights reserved)
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