L’imad locks in October settlement date to buy out AD Ports Group's remaining shareholders after delisting Taqa — but it’s not the start of a take-private trend

L’imad’s AED 7.8 bn buyback of AD Ports Group’s remaining minority stake has cleared every condition attached to it bar routine regulatory sign-off — and subsidiary ADQ has locked in a settlement date no later than 9 October, per a confirmed (pdf) disclosure to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). That’s weeks ahead of the timetable ADQ set for itself: the offer document gave it up to three months after the tender window closes to declare the offer unconditional. The window hasn’t even closed — minority shareholders have until 3pm on 15 September to tender.

REMEMBER- The sovereign investor is offering around AED 7.8 bn for the 24.58% of AD Ports it does not already own.

Why it matters: This is the second major ADX-listed asset L’imad is geared to delist from the exchange this year, after Abu Dhabi Power Corporation (ADPC) squeezed out Taqa's remaining minority shareholders and delisted the utility earlier this month.

Two sources specialized in sovereign wealth fund strategies were clear that this does not add up to a broader retreat from public markets. “I don't think it is a broader reversal,” Global SWF Founder and Managing Director Diego López tells EnterpriseAM. He calls it instead “a careful selection of which subsidiaries will help lead L’imad's expansion and acquisition efforts.” Arqaam Capital’s Rawad Kassouf says that selective consolidation in sectors L’imad considers strategically important “would not surprise” him, but he expects that to coexist with listings, secondary sales, and more institutional participation. “The two trends can, and I think will, run in parallel,” he says.

Why these two?

Taqa and AD Ports are not random picks. They were L’imad’s biggest assets that were not already fully controlled by the fund, López says. Other major platforms including Etihad, Senaat, and the ADX itself are already wholly owned.

L’imad, the sovereign investment giant Abu Dhabi built earlier this year by folding ADQ into a larger platform, inherited ADQ’s playbook of using listings to bring in outside capital while keeping strategic control. That’s the piece now getting a second look, in these two cases at least.

Taqa got there first: ADPC lifted its stake in the utility to 98.12% before moving on the rest. AD Ports is the more striking reversal — the group raised AED 4 bn in fresh equity when it listed in 2022, handing outside investors roughly a quarter of the enlarged company. Four-and-a-half years later, L’imad is paying almost twice that to buy back nearly the same stake.

The AD Ports math

AD Ports has outgrown the company that went public: Revenue rose from AED 3.9 bn in 2021 to AED 20.8 bn in 2025 as acquisitions built out its international footprint. But that expansion has also raised its funding needs: net debt stood at AED 22.7 bn at end-2Q, while fixed-asset and investment commitments totaled close to AED 11 bn, according to Global SWF.

That is where full ownership starts to have an advantage: L’imad has pointed to potential future equity requirements and less room for shareholder distributions as AD Ports enters its next investment cycle. Full control would allow the sovereign investor to inject capital without diluting minorities and give the company more freedom to keep acquiring.

There is a valuation argument too: AD Ports had for some time been flagged as undervalued relative to its growth profile, Arqaam Capital’s Rawad Kassouf tells us. “The business asset base and growth trajectory were arguably moving faster than the public investors were willing to credit.” In that context, he sees full ownership as both a re-rating decision and a way to fund and execute growth with greater flexibility.

What’s next

Modon and PureHealth are the next test cases. L’imad owns around 85% of the acquisitive urban developer and about 40% of the healthcare group alongside Royal Group-linked entities — the other big strategic platforms still short of full ownership, per López. Neither is necessarily headed for a take-private, but what L’imad does with those stakes will show whether Taqa and AD Ports were two company-specific decisions or the templates to replicate across its portfolio.

As for the ADX… the free-float impact is uneven. Only 1.88% of Taqa remained outside L’imad’s control before its squeeze-out, so little investable stock was left by the time it delisted. AD Ports is a more meaningful test: L’imad is seeking the full 24.58% minority, which would remove a substantially larger pool of publicly held shares if the offer succeeds.