Abu Dhabi Investment House (ADIH), the newly established financial institution today announced that it has signed a MoU with the Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank, Gulf Finance House B.S.C. (GFH), to offer a significant part of the US$276.5 million private placement for Energy City-Qatar exclusively in the UAE market.
Under the terms of the MoU, ADIH will be the strategic partner and sole sponsor to the private placement issue, offering US$100 million worth of placement to prospective investors in the UAE.
Announcing the investment offer, Mr. Rashad Janahi, Chief Executive Officer, said: “The Energy City-Qatar private placement is a significant investment opportunity for the UAE investors enabling them to maximize returns on their investment and also participate in the multi-billion dollar project in the oil and gas sector.”
“We consider our involvement in the private placement issue as a milestone in our growth strategy and in line with our charter to offer high-yielding investment opportunities to investors,” he said.
Energy City – Qatar is a first-of-its-kind project in the region and will be a nerve centre of the global oil and gas business in the Middle East, attracting invesments from significant global players in the hydrocarbon value chain. It will be an integrated project, consolidating R&D, technology, education, training and finance under one roof. In future, the project will also offer significant real estate investment opportunities in hotels, exhibition halls, residential and commercial property to support the Energy City Qatar.
The MoU mandating ADIH’s role in the private placement issue was signed at a special ceremony in Abu Dhabi by Mr. Janahi and Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Jasmi, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GFH in the presence of senior officials from both financial institutions and representatives from Gulf Energy, the global consortium of leading energy consultants and major investors from the Gulf, United States, Europe and South East Asia which is promoting the Energy City-Qatar project. GFH is the lead financial advisor of the project.
The private placement has been floated to fund the development of the Energy City-Qatar, a path-breaking the mega oil and gas infrastructure project in Doha aimed at enhancing the Gulf region’s ability to capture critical revenue streams from hydrocarbons and act as a comprehensive regional hub for the industry. The first phase of the project was unveiled recently which will be developed at an investment of US$1.6 billion.
“ADIH will offer 10,000,000 shares at US$10 each out of the total placement of 27,650,000 shares in the UAE market. The minimum subscription in the placement is pegged at US$100,000 with subsequent investments in multiples of US$50, 000,” Mr. Janahi said.
The RoI from the private placement has been pegged at approximately 20 per cent per annum.
“We are confident that the issue will trigger immediate enthusiasm among the UAE investors considering that it will allow them to reap dividends from the robust growth of the oil and gas-rich Qatar economy. Energy City-Qatar is an unparalleled project in the oil and gas sector in the region with a long-term scope for growth and potential to generate sustained revenues,” he added.
