Abu Dhabi's ADNOC, Dutch-listed OCI weigh IPO of fertiliser joint venture

ABU DHABI National Oil Company (ADNOC) and chemical producer OCI N.V. (OCI), which is backed by Egyptian businessman Nassef Sawiris, are weighing an initial public offering of their fertiliser joint venture Fertiglobe, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, Fertiglobe was formed in 2019 after OCI and ADNOC combined their ammonia and urea assets, with the two companies currently holding ownership stakes of 58% and 42% respectively.

ADNOC and OCI invited international and local banks to pitch for potential roles in Fertiglobe's public share-sale, said the sources, declining to be named because the matter is not public.

The firms submitted bids last week for the deal, which could raise at least $1 billion, they said.

ADNOC declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Monday. OCI and Fertiglobe did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The business is expected to be next in line for a listing, after ADNOC completes the IPO of its drilling business, one of the sources said. Both the transactions, should they go ahead, will be subject to market conditions and regulatory approval.

Last week, Reuters reported that the state oil company was considering a public share sale of its subsidiary ADNOC Drilling and a listing of its shares in Abu Dhabi. Two other sources said ADNOC wanted that deal to happen this year.

The two deals come as ADNOC, which supplies nearly 3% of global oil demand, seeks to extract value from businesses it owns and divest assets seen as non-core businesses.

Egyptian billionaire Sawiris, who controls Euronext-listed OCI, is also chief executive of Fertiglobe. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who is chief executive at ADNOC, is chairman of the board at Fertiglobe.

The company describes itself on its website as the largest export-focused nitrogen fertiliser platform globally and the largest nitrogen producer in the Middle East and North Africa region.

It has a combined total production capacity of 6.5 million tonnes of urea and merchant ammonia at four subsidiaries in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Algeria, according to the website.

At the end of last year, ADNOC hired Standard Chartered to sell the waste management assets held by one of its units, ADNOC Refining, in a deal that could fetch $500 million.

It also raised billions of dollars through sale-and-leaseback deals of its oil and gas pipeline assets. - Reuters