Lunate snags 40% of Adnoc Oil Pipelines from BlackRock and KKR

Alternative investment firm Lunate has acquired a 40% stake in Adnoc’s oil pipeline asset network from US private equity giants BlackRock and KKR & Co, a Lunate pressrelease reads. No details were disclosed about the terms or value of the acquisition, but Bloomberg previously reported the stake could potentially cost more than USD 4 bn, including debt.

The details: Lunate's Long Term Capital Fund acquired a 100% stake in a special purpose vehicle co-owned by BlackRock and KKR managed funds.

BlackRock and KKR were trying to exit the pipeline for some time now: The private equity giants were in final talks to sell their combined 40% stake in Adnoc Oil Pipelines to ADQ during July of last year. Both companies had purchased their stake back in 2019 in what was the first investment made by foreign asset managers in a state-owned oil producer in the region.

More on Adnoc’s Oil Pipelines: The oil giant operates 17 onshore and 5 offshore pipelines spanning 806 km, with a total capacity of 18 mn barrels per day, according to Reuters. Adnoc leases their ownership interest in those pipelines over a 23-year period.

OTHER M&A NEWS-

Turkish household manufacturer and Beko parent company Arçelik has completed its acquisition of Whirlpool’s Middle East and North Africa operations, including in the UAE and Morocco, according to a statement. The acquisition will help Arçelik expand its footprint in the region, and will see it own the Whirlpool, Ariston, Indesit, Hotpoint, Hotpoint-Ariston, Bauknecht and Ignis brands in the region.

Arçelik also finalized an agreement with Whirlpool EMEA resulting in the creation of Beko Europe, in which it owns a 75% stake, while Whirlpool owns the remaining shares. These two transactions boost Arçelik’s operations to cover 57 markets with some 55k employees, and are expected to ramp up annual production capacity.

Saudi telco Zain Group’s digital solutions arm, ZainTech, is set to acquire Dubai-based regional Amazon Web Services (AWS) advanced consulting partner Citrus Consulting after inking a share purchase agreement with its parent company Redington, it said in a statement.

The details: The acquisition will integrate Citrus Consulting’s nearly 30 AWS-certified engineers and client portfolio with ZainTech’s Cloud Center of Excellence for AWS, enhancing ZainTech’s cloud-based digital solutions offerings across advisory, infrastructure management, application modernization, and data and AI services.

ALSO-Agthia Group has completed the integration of healthy snacks producer BMB Group under its umbrella, according to a company statement. The acquisition was completed in December 2021, with the past two years dedicated to transferring knowledge and expertise and paving the way for Agthia's snacking division to take full operational control of BMB, according to an ADX disclosure (pdf).

**This story was amended to remove mention of Lunate being backed by ADQ.