UAE’s Biggest Power Firm Taqa Plans Green Bonds and M&A Deals

(Bloomberg) --

The largest power producer in the United Arab Emirates plans to sell bonds and acquire assets this year, according to the company’s chief executive officer.

Bolstered by gains at its oil and gas businesses, the utility known as Taqa wants to aims to expand in renewable energy projects as well as its main industries of power generation and water desalination. Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., as it’s officially known, posted a one-third jump in profit last year, helped by oil prices that averaged nearly $100 a barrel last year.

“Our focus is on growth,” Jasim Husain Thabet said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. “We’re in discussions and, if there are deals that bring value to the shareholders, we’ll follow through and execute.”

The company is also looking at issuing “several hundred million dollars” of green bonds for specific projects in 2023, he said.

The UAE is hosting COP28, the UN’s major climate summit, this year and one of its key tasks is to get oil producers more involved in discussions on how to curb global warming.

READ MORE: UAE’s Biggest Green Power Firm Targets $750 Million Bond Sale

The country was the first in the Persian Gulf to declare a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Last year, Taqa bought stakes in the UAE’s main renewable energy company Masdar alongside Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Taqa is the biggest shareholder in Masdar’s solar and wind power business, while Adnoc is the main partner in the green-hydrogen unit.

Masdar will likely spend in “the ballpark” of $50 billion by 2030 to buy solar and wind assets and have stakes in at least 100 gigawatts of power.

“M&A is going to be a major component of that,” Thabet said.

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