State capital is becoming leverage as Kuwait leases pipelines and PIF courts co-financiers

Nobody is writing the whole check anymore. Kuwait leased out its crude pipeline network, the PIF went looking for co-financiers and guarantors, and Jada is backing someone else's fund rather than investing directly — state capital as leverage rather than as the source of funds.

Blackstone, Brookfield, and KKR are taking 49% of Kuwait’s entire crude pipeline network in a USD 16 bn lease-and-leaseback that Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is billing as the largest foreign direct investment in the country's history, the Financial Times reports. KPC subsidiary Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) takes 51% of the JV and keeps full ownership and operational control of the 13-pipeline, 320-km network. The three firms will split the balance in equal thirds. The structure runs 20.5 years on a volume-based tariff and throws off USD 7.85 bn in upfront proceeds for KOC at closing, earmarked for capex against KPC's target of 4 mn bbl/d of crude capacity by 2035.

Why this one travels beyond Kuwait: It’s the fourth Gulf midstream monetization in short order, after Aramco, ADNOC, and Bahrain's Bapco Energies — the template is now well-established enough that the pricing conversation has moved from “will they” to “at what tariff.” The process launched days before February's joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran and has closed as the US and Iran continued to exchange strikes. Centerview Partners, HSBC, and JP Morgan advised KPC.

The Public Investment Fund signed three MoUs worth a combined USD 24.5 bn with the World Bank Group's private-sector and guarantee arms and the US Export-Import Bank, all of it pointed at pulling outside capital into its portfolio companies rather than funding them off its own balance sheet, it said in two separate statements. A USD 6 bn MoU with the International Finance Corporation covers co-financing across infrastructure, energy, transportation, tourism, and health care, with a channel for steering private capital into PIF portfolio company projects; a separate USD 3.5 bn MoU with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency provides credit-enhancement guarantees to backstop portfolio company financing across MENA, weighted toward decarbonization and new industries.

Buy American, Saudi-financed: The USD 15 bn EXIM framework is the narrower and more pointed of the two, setting up long-term financing for PIF portfolio companies to buy US goods and services across advanced tech, aerospace, infrastructure, future mobility, water security, and critical minerals. Note who gets what on each end: US exporters get a financing channel into the Kingdom's single biggest buyer, and PIF companies get long-tenor credit for kit they were importing anyway.

The PIF-owned Jada Fund of Funds has made its first commitment to Growth Catalyst Fund I, a private equity fund targeting USD 200 mn to back growth-stage Saudi SMEs. The fund is chasing founder-led, upper-middle-market companies, mainly in Saudi Arabia, with growth-stage deals as the core strategy and room to write pre-IPO checks, a Jada spokesperson tells us. The spokesperson declined to disclose the size of Jada’s commitment.

Egyptian state-owned ins. giant Misr Life Ins. will now wrap its IPO before the end of this year, Investment Minister Mohamed Farid said yesterday — pushing the float past the June-July window he flagged last month. Talks with investors are underway and valuation is still being worked out, Farid said.

Where things stand: Misr Ins. Holding Company (MIHC) signed off on the sale of a 20% stake in the subsidiary late last month, with the Sovereign Fund of Egypt — which owns 100% of MIHC — tapping EFG Hermes as sole global coordinator and bookrunner. A fair value study due in June has been finalized, a government source tells us.

Capital Med’s IPO is also running behind schedule: Egyptians for Healthcare Services (EHCS) is now preparing to list the hospital on the EGX this quarter in an offering worth c. EGP 2.2 bn, CIRA CEO Mohamed El Kalla said in a press release (pdf). The listing was previously slated for 2Q. CIRA holds 28% of the project, and investor interest has been strong, El Kalla said.

The money goes into beds: Proceeds will take capacity to 875 from 220 — close to a fourfold expansion — as Capital Med works through phase one of a long-term plan for a 4k-bed smart medical city in Badr.

The African Development Bank is putting EUR 100 mn behind Africa’s first integrated LFP battery gigafactory, a Chinese-built plant going up in the Atlantic Free Zone in Morocco's Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region. The borrower is Gotion Power Morocco, local vehicle of Shenzhen-listed Gotion High-Tech. Phase one targets 10 GWh a year of cells and packs for EVs with a long-term path to 100 GWh, and is expected to create 600+ direct jobs at a 70% local integration rate.

The loan is an anchor, not the whole ticket: AfDB is acting as mandated lead arranger under its New African Financial Architecture for Development framework and plans to mobilize up to another EUR 141 mn from co-financiers, taking the package to c. EUR 241 mn.

BACKGROUND- Morocco’s CDG picked up a stake in Gotion back in 2024, and we looked last month at why Rabat is playing it cautious on a China FTA even as Beijing pushes for a permanent pact.

Morocco’s Bank of Africa has led the debut international syndicated loan for Guinea. The bank’s London subsidiary, BOA UK, acted as global coordinator and mandated lead arranger on a USD 300 mn facility to build the 160-km Labé–Tougué–Bafing road in Guinea’s north, with a Senegalese contractor, Compagnie Sahélienne d’Entreprise (CSE), on a 36-month build. The structure pairs a conventional tranche with an Islamic Murabaha one and carries partial ins. Cover from the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB) ins., and per the bank, marks Guinea's first foray into both the syndicated loans and Islamic finance markets.

The PIF is imposing tighter financial controls at Al Nassr after the football club’s debt blew past SAR 800 mn, a source close to the fund told Arriyadiyah. The liabilities trace mainly to decisions taken last season, when Al Nassr was among Asia’s biggest spenders on overseas signings in 2025. Under the controls, management will be barred from signing players or coaches without money generated from sponsorships, while executive management’s financial powers will be trimmed and advisors will be brought in to lift revenues and cut costs.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING TODAY-

Fincart closed an oversubscribed USD 2.8 mn seed round co-led by pan-African VC fund Launch Africa and Antler MENAP, according to a press release (pdf). The Cairo-based e-commerce operations startup will put the money into its AI platform, hiring, new regional markets, and partnerships, co-founder and CEO Mostafa Masry tells us — with Yango Ventures, Five35 Ventures, Bluestream Capital, Hi2 Global, and Kalahari Venture Labs also in the round.

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