Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, better known as Taqa, is teaming up with Emirates Global Aluminium, Dubal Holding and the Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec) to unlock further development of solar power generation capacity in Abu Dhabi.
The tie-up will also advance the optimisation of power asset and generation while also decarbonising EGA’s aluminium production.
As part of the initiative, Taqa and Dubal Holding plan to acquire EGA’s electricity generation assets in the UAE, holding a stake of 50 per cent each.
The power generated from the assets will be supplied to the grid under a long-term power purchase agreement with Ewec’s load dispatch centre, Taqa said in a statement on Wednesday to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded.
EGA would source power from the grid through a long-term electricity supply agreement that includes an increasing proportion of clean energy procured by Ewec.
That will make EGA the largest single electricity consumer on the grid.
“Sourcing cost effective clean power from the grid will enable EGA to lead our global industry into a more sustainable future,” EGA chief executive Abdulnasser bin Kalban said.
“Today, we are taking another historic step towards achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. We are also assuring that EGA’s global competitiveness will strengthen over the decades ahead, not only as the world’s largest ‘premium aluminium’ producer but also as one of its most environmentally responsible.”
EGA, which is jointly owned by Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment arm Mubadala Investment Company and the Investment Corporation of Dubai, is the world’s biggest “premium” aluminium producer. The company’s metal is the largest “Made in the UAE” export after oil and gas.
EGA is already taking various steps to develop its own technology to decarbonise its operations and reduce emissions, Salman Abdulla, executive vice president at EGA, said at the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit last year.
The company aims to lower its emissions further in the next 10 to 15 years through “breakthrough technologies” by tapping into green sources of energy, including hydrogen and solar, he said at the time.
EGA’s assets, located in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, have a total power generation capacity of 6,474 megawatts and predominantly run on combined cycle gas turbines technology.
These include some of the most efficient turbines in the region, including an H-class engine in Jebel Ali that was commissioned in 2021.
For Taqa, the acquisition of EGA’s power assets would increase the company’s UAE-based capacity to more than 22 gigawatts, in line with its growth strategy to increase domestic capacity to 30 gigawatts by 2030, it said.
“Working together with EGA, Dubal Holding and Ewec, we will enable EGA to connect to a diverse energy mix, as well as allow for the development of additional renewable energy projects in Abu Dhabi,” said Jasim Thabet, group chief executive and managing director of Taqa.
The new steady power demand from EGA increases the predictability of the overall power system and advances Ewec’s development of new solar energy projects.
The scale of the expansion as a direct result of this initiative is expected to be greater than the current total installed solar generation capacity in the UAE.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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