Adia goes ahead with partial Ooredoo stake sale: The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) has formally kicked off a secondary global offering of 160.5 mn shares in Qatari telecom operator Ooredoo, equal to 5.01% of the company and roughly half of Adia’s 10% stake in the firm, according to a press release (pdf). News of the potential share sale first came out earlier this week.

Shares are being marketed at QAR 12.40-13.00, setting it up to raise up to QAR 2.1 bn (USD 572 mn), and if fully covered, could see Adia’s stake be reduced to 4.99%.

Timeline: The bookbuild kicks off today and closes tomorrow, with acceleration possible at Adia’s discretion, and shares expected to first start trading on Thursday.

Who can take part? The offering is open to institutional investors outside of the US, as well as to certain qualified institutional buyers within the US, and to qualified investors in Qatar. Ooredoo is also floating the possibility of talks with institutional investors ahead of subscription closing.

ADVISORS- Our friends at HSBC are joint bookrunners alongside Citigroup and QNB Capital.

The move is the latest in a divestment drive, with Adia exiting a US student housing portfolio for USD 1 bn recently, its 70% stake in Singapore’s PLQ Mall, its holding in French car-leasing firm Ayvens, as well as reducing its ownership of Swiss skincare firm Galderma. At the same time, it has been showing more interest in investing in IPOs in India and hedge funds.

One divestment agreement is not going through, though: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s (Adia) subsidiary Infinity Investments will not be selling its 24.99% stake in in Vier Gas Holdings, the owner of German gas transmission operator Open Grid Europe (OGE), to energy infrastructure firm Snam, after the two terminated their EUR 920 mn agreement, according to a press release (pdf).

What happened? The agreement was dependent on Snam securing FDI approval from German regulators. Authorities later concluded the commitments offered by Snam did not adequately address their requirements, effectively blocking the transaction.

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