XRG, Adic, and Adia all deploy abroad as Abu Dhabi buys into three separate asset classes

Abu Dhabi’s investment arms are buying into three separate asset classes, none of which are in the Gulf. XRG has gone to Australian LNG it can ship to Asia without passing Hormuz, Adic into European corporate and infrastructure lending alongside Apollo, and Adia into Tunisian-founded financial software on Advent’s buyout.

XRG is buying Shell’s 16.7% of Australia’s North West Shelf LNG project for a base USD 1.4 bn, its first move into Australian gas. A milestone-linked contingent payment sits on top of that, the two companies said in statements (XRG and Shell). The non-operated stake gives Adnoc’s international energy arm gas it can send into Asia without passing through Hormuz.

The war has sharpened a push that predates it. XRG wants to rank among the world’s top five LNG suppliers, and the disruption to Gulf energy flows has made finding assets elsewhere more urgent for the region’s producers, Bloomberg says, with Qatar doing the same to cut its Hormuz exposure. XRG says North West Shelf puts it close to demand growth in Asia-Pacific.

It gets the whole chain, from upstream gas interests through pipeline and midstream infrastructure to offtake arrangements and Shell’s share of liquefaction capacity, along with Shell’s decommissioning obligations. North West Shelf, Australia’s first LNG project and operated by Woodside, can liquefy 14.3 mn tons a year, almost 3% of global capacity, Bloomberg reports. Shell’s share is about 2.4 mn tons a year, putting the base price at roughly USD 590 a ton of annual capacity, by our math. The sale “realizes value from a mature, non-operated asset,” Shell integrated gas president Cederic Cremers said, and the company plans to grow its LNG sales 4-5% a year to 2030.

Emaar Properties is weighing a buyout of the 21% of Emaar Development it does not own, at a cost of as much as USD 3.2 bn. The listed unit is worth more than USD 15 bn at current prices and Emaar already holds just over 79%, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. An announcement could come within days, with the board meeting this week on the proposals to create shareholder value that Emaar said a month ago it was evaluating. Nothing is final and Emaar declined to comment.

Why it matters: Emaar Development is the group’s biggest source of funds, and owning all of it would give Emaar more freedom to direct that money into recurring-income assets, international expansion, and dividends, CI Capital analysts wrote, with the cost and timing of the funding weighing on the decision. Emaar has plenty to fund — it pledged AED 65 bn over five years last year and has since unveiled a AED 200 bn mixed-use Dubai project on top of its Egypt work.

DIP Holding priced at AED 1.12, the midpoint of its range, valuing it at AED 9.7 bn on listing. Dubai Investments sold 1.7 bn existing shares for a total offering of AED 1.9 bn, with bookbuilding and subscriptions closing on 3 November, according to its pricing announcement (pdf). The parent takes the net proceeds and keeps 80%, and listing is expected on 11 November.

The book was covered within minutes of opening and the offering was significantly oversubscribed, though no multiple has been given, and the range itself had already been set below both management’s earlier valuation and the banks’ estimates. Chairman Khalid Jassim Bin Kalban said demand from local, regional, and international investors “across the entire price range” endorsed the business. At AED 1.12 the AED 700 mn 2026 payout works out to a 7.2% yield, with the three-year AED 2.175 bn commitment averaging about 7.5% a year, by our math.

Abu Dhabi Investment Council is backing a new Apollo-led European lending platform with more than EUR 10 bn of financing capacity. Adic is among a group of global investors in the European Credit Company, which will lend to businesses and infrastructure projects across the continent, according to an Apollo statement. The size of Adic’s investment was not disclosed, and the commitment adds to the emirate’s growing exposure to European private credit.

Adia is taking a minority stake in Tunisian-founded financial software group Vermeg as part of Advent’s acquisition of the company. The US private equity firm is buying out UK investor Charterhouse Capital Partners and founder Badreddine Ouali, who keeps a stake and stays on as vice chairman, according to a statement. Neither the size nor the value of Adia’s stake was disclosed.

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