PIF-backed contractor to buy Dubai energy services firm

Reuters/Agustin Marcarian

Saudi contracting firm Nesma & Partners has agreed to acquire Kent, a Dubai-based privately-owned energy services provider. 

The company, which is partly owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), will close the acquisition of Kent by year-end, subject to regulatory approvals.

The value of the deal was not given.

Kent, backed by UK-based energy investment firm Bluewater since 2015, has grown its revenue tenfold, reporting high growth over the past two years following its acquisition of SNC-Lavalin’s oil and gas business in mid-2021. 

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With revenues of $1.4 billion, it competes for service contracts covering complex and technical solutions for the conventional energy, renewables, low carbon, chemicals and processing sectors.

The four-decade-old Nesma & Partners has delivered some of Saudi Arabia’s biggest industrial and infrastructure projects for Saudi Aramco, PIF, Neom, General Authority of Civil Aviation and the defence ministry, among others.

Nesma & Partners and Kent started collaborating in June 2022 as they established a joint venture, NesmaKent, to provide services for Saudi Aramco. 

There will be no changes to the decision-making autonomy structure of Kent or its core service offering. The current leadership team will remain in place and continue to deliver services to the energy industry through four service lines.

PIF in February invested $1.3 billion in four local construction companies, including Nesma & Partners, as part of the fund’s capital increase initiatives.