Chemical producer OCI NV and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. have announced their intention to list their Middle Eastern fertiliser venture – Fertiglobe – on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
In a statement on Tuesday the companies revealed plans to list 13.8 percent of Fertiglobe’s shared capital to individuals and other investors in the UAE and to qualified institutional and other investors.
The potential share sale could value Fertiglobe, which was formed in 2019, at about $7 billion including debt, according to previous reports from Bloomberg.
Fertiglobe operates a fertiliser and chemical production facility in the Ruwais industrial complex, located along the Arabian Gulf coast, west of the city of Abu Dhabi. The company is a key part of plans by the United Arab Emirates to manufacture and export blue hydrogen, a fuel usually shipped in the form of ammonia.
Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber (pictured below), UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC managing director and group CEO, and Fertiglobe chairman, said: “ADNOC, like OCI, will remain a long-term committed major shareholder in Fertiglobe and will continue to partner with the company on emerging opportunities, including the development of a new state-of-the-art blue ammonia project at TA’ZIZ in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.”
The offering is the first listing of a free zone company onshore in the UAE.
OCI, which is backed by Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, has a 58 percent stake in Fertiglobe, while Adnoc holds 42 percent. The company generated revenues of $1.55bn for the year ended December 31, 2020, and $1.26bn for the opening six months of this year.
Fertiglobe, which is the largest nitrogen fertiliser producer in the Middle East and North Africa, by production capacity, is currently the largest seaborne exporter of urea and ammonia combined globally with a merchant ammonia and urea capacity representing around 10 percent of combined market share of global exports by sea.
Ahmed El Hoshy, OCI NV CEO and Fertiglobe CEO, added: “Fertiglobe is an early mover in production of blue and green ammonia, which results in low or no carbon emissions and has a myriad of uses as a hydrogen carrier and clean fuel, facilitating GHG reductions in industries that make up 80 percent of current global emissions.”
The completion of the offering and admission is expected to take place in late October.
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