ADNOC-backed Fertiglobe lists after $795 mil IPO amid funding for growth projects

The UAE fertilizer company Fertiglobe, in which Abu Dhabi National Oil Co and the Netherlands-listed chemicals company OCI have stakes, was listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Oct. 27 after raising more than $795 million in an initial public offering, it said in a statement.

ADNOC and OCI sold a 13.8% stake in Fertiglobe, which produces urea and ammonia in the UAE. ADNOC continues to hold indirectly 36.2% in Fertiglobe after the listing, while OCI will own the majority of shares.

Fertiglobe is ADNOC's third share sale of a unit. Since 2019, ADNOC has been monetizing its oil and gas assets as it seeks to unlock cash to fund strategic projects, which include increasing oil output capacity to 5 million b/d by 2030 from around the current 4 million b/d.

ADNOC sold an 11% stake in ADNOC Drilling in an IPO that raised $1.1 billion, with the unit starting to trade on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Oct. 3. Baker Hughes, which bought a 5% stake in ADNOC Drilling in 2018, retained its stake.

Helmerich & Payne invested $100 million in ADNOC Drilling's IPO and owns 1% of the unit as part of ADNOC's 11% share sale.

Blue ammonia

ADNOC Drilling's IPO follows ADNOC's 10% share sale of fuel retailer ADNOC Distribution in 2017, raising $851 million. Last year, ADNOC raised $1 billion from institutional placement of another 10% of shares of ADNOC Distribution, with the parent company retaining an 80% shareholding in the unit.

Fertiglobe, which operates in Egypt, the UAE and Algeria, has a net ammonia production capacity of 1.5 million mt/year.

In June, Fertiglobe joined ADNOC and sovereign wealth fund ADQ as partner to develop a one million mt/year blue ammonia facility in the industrial hub of Ruwais in Abu Dhabi. The project, which will be located at the TA'ZIZ chemicals development in Ruwais, is expected to start up in 2025.

Fertiglobe also partnered this year with ADNOC to sell cargoes of blue ammonia from its Fertil plant in Ruwais to three Japanese customers. The company is also studying the potential use of solar and wind resources to produce green ammonia in Egypt.