Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Adnoc buys 25% of Austrian chemical group OMV

By Eva Levesque
Sultan Al Jaber, Adnoc group chief executive Wam
Sultan Al Jaber, Adnoc group chief executive

Abu Dhabi state oil company Adnoc has formally closed the acquisition of a 25 percent stake in Austrian energy and chemicals group OMV.

The energy giant bought the stake from UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company. 

Financial details were not disclosed.

Österreichische Beteiligungs AG, an Austrian independent holding company, holds 31 percent in OMV, with the remaining share capital in free float. 

The deal means Adnoc has increased its stake in both Borealis and Borouge. 

Borouge is listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. 

Adnoc owned 54 percent and Borealis 36 percent before yesterday’s announcement. Retail and institutional investors hold ten percent.

Borealis was owned 75 percent by OMV, and Adnoc had the remaining 25 percent.

“Building on our 25 percent shareholding in Borealis, this transaction marks the next transformative step as we accelerate our ambitious chemicals growth strategy, unlocking significant growth and value creation opportunities for Adnoc, OMV, and their respective shareholders,” Khaled Salmeen, Adnoc’s downstream industry, marketing & trading executive director said.

Adnoc has started pushing deeper into petrochemicals as a part of a $150 billion expansion strategy and to diversify its revenues.

This week’s deal may lead to combining Adnoc-controlled Borouge with OMV-controlled Borealis in a new petrochemical holding entity worth more than $30 million.

Adnoc began negotiations about the potential creation of the new holding last July.

Latest articles

Kuwaiti logistics company Agility Public Warehousing has paid out nearly KD9 million ($29.2 million) over the disputed lease

Kuwait’s Agility pays out $30m over scrap site dispute

Kuwaiti logistics company Agility Public Warehousing has paid out nearly KD9 million ($29.2 million) after losing a 2021 court case over leasing a plot of land in Kuwait used as a scrap site. “With this payment, the company will have fully executed the aforementioned ruling in favour of the Public Authority for Industry,” Agility said […]

The Rolls Building in London, where high-value commercial cases are heard. The Kuwait pension fund trial is expected to last one year

Kuwait pension fund’s $1bn lawsuit begins in London

Kuwait’s public pension fund has accused asset manager Man Group, Swiss bank EFG and others of laundering bribes paid to its late director as a $1 billion trial begins at London’s High Court. The Public Institution for Social Security, which operates Kuwait’s social security and pension scheme, is also suing the estate of Fahad Al Rajaan, its director from 1984 to […]

Men at the Kuwait City souq. Kuwait last sold dollar-denominated bonds in 2017

Kuwait gets closer to tapping debt markets to fund infrastructure

Kuwait has moved a step closer to selling debt on the international markets again after the cabinet approved a draft decree that should help the country fund multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects. Historically the country has had little need to borrow thanks to its oil revenue and relatively unambitious spending plans. Kuwait last sold dollar-denominated bonds in […]

An egg farm in Brazil. Saudi Arabia wants to reduce its reliance on imported foods

Entaj share price rises 30% in first day on Tadawul

The share price of poultry producer Entaj has risen by 30 percent on its first day of trading, the maximum daily increase allowed on the Saudi stock exchange. Entaj – formally known as the Arabian Company for Agricultural and Industrial Investment – is the fourth company to list on Saudi Arabia’s main market this year. […]

Shareholders in Borouge are due to vote on a proposed dividend and 2.5 percent share buyback on April 7

Borouge proposes share buyback after merger stock slide

Abu Dhabi petrochemicals company Borouge will seek shareholder approval to buy back up to 2.5 percent of its shares, it said on Monday, after its share price plunged on this month’s news of its merger deal with Austria’s Borealis.  Borouge’s majority shareholder Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Austria’s OMV said they had agreed to merge […]

Kingdom Holding Company owner Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, pictured last year at Riyadh's Kingdom Arena

Kingdom Holding to pay 2024 dividend despite revenue drop

Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), the conglomerate owned by Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, will pay an annual dividend despite a fall in revenues for 2024. The dividend payout will reach SAR1 billion ($267 million), or 2.8 percent of its capital, the investment company said in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange on Monday. […]

Workers use an excavator at the Faw port project site in Faw, in the southern province of Basra, January 6, 2016. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani

Iraq’s long delayed Faw port nears completion

Iraq’s long-delayed redevelopment and construction of its Faw port near the Arabian Gulf will be completed this year, the Iraq state news agency reported, paving the way for improved access for goods to Iraq and beyond. South Korea’s Daewoo won a $2.6 billion contract to build five main piers at the port in 2010 and […]

Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas

Riyadh Air seeks tie-up with Indian carriers

Saudi Arabia’s newest airline Riyadh Air is exploring potential tie-ups with Indian carriers IndiGo and Air India, CEO Tony Douglas has said. The conversations are at an early stage but offer a “win-win” proposition, he told The Indian Express news daily. India is a “super important” market, Douglas said, as Saudi Arabia expects India to […]

Inflation in Lebanon rose to more than 300% last year, according to the World Bank

Economy in Lebanon remains severely depressed, IMF says

The Lebanese economy remains severely depressed, its condition exacerbated by a two-month war last year between the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group and Israel, in which infrastructure and homes were destroyed, the International Monetary Fund has said. An IMF team visited the country last week and met the new government led by President Joseph Aoun and […]

Jazeera Airways CEO Barathan Pasupathi bought roughly $250,000 worth of shares in the airline

Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways CEO buys shares in his own airline

The CEO of Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways has bought 80,000 shares in his own company as the airline embarks on a five-year plan to boost performance. Barathan Pasupathi purchased the shares between March 9 and 13, according to company disclosures on the Kuwaiti Bourse, buying shares worth $250,000 in a series of transactions last week. Shares […]

S&P Saudi Arabia

S&P raises Saudi Arabia’s rating 0ver ongoing reforms

S&P Global Ratings has upgraded Saudi Arabia’s rating to “A+” from “A” with a stable outlook, citing socioeconomic and capital market reforms. Strong non-oil growth and rising oil volumes from 2025 will support medium-term growth prospects, it said. Saudi Arabia’s National Debt Management Centre welcomed the upgrade, saying it would allow the kingdom to issue […]

The 17 aircraft are expected to reduce DAE's weighted average passenger fleet age to 6.9 years

Dubai Aerospace buys 17 aircraft for $1bn

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), the Middle East’s largest aviation leasing and engineering company, has acquired 17 aircraft for $1 billion from multiple sellers, the company said in a statement. Eighty percent of the aircraft are manufactured by Airbus, while the remaining 20 percent are from Boeing. The aircraft have been leased to 11 airlines in […]