Adnoc, the top shareholder in Adnoc Gas, has said it plans to sell part of its stake in the subsidiary to institutional investors as it looks to improve liquidity and raise capital.
The Abu Dhabi-based energy company will offer about 3.1 billion ordinary shares, representing about 4 per cent of Adnoc Gas’s issued and outstanding shares, Adnoc said on Thursday.
At Adnoc Gas’s last closing price of Dh3.58, the offering is valued at Dh11.1 billion ($3.02 billion), making it potentially the largest share sale in the Mena region since Saudi Aramco's $12.3 billion offering in June last year.
The offering, which will commence immediately and is expected to close on Friday, will be open to qualified institutional and other investors in a number of countries, Adnoc said.
The company, which owns a 90 per cent stake in Adnoc Gas, said it could decide to close the offering at any time before the stated deadline.
“Since its initial public offering in March 2023, Adnoc Gas has consistently delivered strong growth, robust financial performance and superior shareholder returns,” said Khaled Al Zaabi, group chief financial officer at Adnoc.
“As a committed, long-term majority shareholder, this offering aligns with Adnoc's strategic objectives to enhance the liquidity and free float of Adnoc Gas."
The final number of shares to be placed and the offering price will be determined at the close of the book-building process and the proceeds will go to Adnoc.
The share offering aims to boost trading and liquidity, diversify shareholders and increase free float. A higher free float is also expected to "provide a pathway" for Adnoc Gas's inclusion in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) and Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) emerging market indexes, which could occur at the next quarterly review, subject to Adnoc Gas meeting all relevant inclusion criteria, Adnoc said.
Adnoc Gas, which has access to 95 per cent of the UAE's natural gas reserves, is looking to boost exports of products such as liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha.
In the Emirates, Adnoc Gas supplies to customers, mostly utilities and industrial companies, through an extensive network of pipelines.
The company is set to acquire Adnoc’s majority stake in the Ruwais LNG project, which will have a total capacity of 9.6 million tonnes per annum. It is scheduled to start in the second half of 2028.
In 2023, Adnoc raised about Dh9.1 billion from the sale of a 5 per cent stake in Adnoc Gas, which was the UAE's biggest IPO that year.
The company sold more than 3.8 billion shares, with the IPO drawing strong demand from institutional and retail investors, and generating more than $124 billion in orders. It was about 50 times oversubscribed.
Last year, Adnoc raised $935 million by selling 880 million additional shares in its drilling unit – Adnoc Drilling – to institutional investors after recording strong demand for the offering.
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MEFCC information
Tickets range from Dh110 for an advance single-day pass to Dh300 for a weekend pass at the door. VIP tickets have sold out. Visit www.mefcc.com to purchase tickets in advance.
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To be taxed:
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A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
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Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
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Skoda Superb Specs
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
