Saudi developer Abdul Latif Jameel Energy (ALJ Energy) plans to use its renewable energy experience to develop carbon neutral desalination plants, as it pursues contracts in both sectors in markets including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
"We're looking at working between [our] water and the power teams to develop a carbon neutral desalination approach, to be able to desalinate with renewable energy," the company's chief executive officer Roberto de Diego in an interview with The National.
The firm is “looking internally” at integrating solar and wind power solutions into desalination plants, which are typically highly energy-intensive.
“[It will] depend on the geographic conditions of where the desalination plant will be,” said Mr de Diego Arozamena.
“The solar or wind plant doesn’t necessarily have to be in the same place; [much depends on] the regulations to provide electricity to the desalination project.” he said.
ALJ Energy is among a number of local and international utility providers and energy firms hoping to benefit from the increasing privatisation of Saudi Arabia’s water and electricity distribution networks.
The country’s environment minister Abdulrahman Al Fadhli on Sunday announced plans to build nine desalination plants on the country’s Red Sea coast with a total capacity of 240,000 cubic metres of water per day, to be completed within 18 months.
Mr de Diego Arozamena said the firm is targeting both greenfield and brownfield desalination opportunities in the kingdom, including largescale projects in the industrial cities of Jubail, Yanbu and Rabigh.
ALJ Energy has also prequalified to bid for the world’s largest desalination facility in Abu Dhabi, a 200 million Imperial gallon-a-day project announced earlier this month by the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (Adwea).
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Read more:
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The Dh2 billion Taweela project will be developed as two desalination plants of 100 million gallons each and will be constructed alongside its namesake power station, located north of the city of Abu Dhabi.
ALJ Energy, which only opened its wind division last year, is eyeing opportunities in the Middle East’s nascent wind sector, especially within its home market.
Saudi Arabia last year tendered a 400MW project in Dumat Al Jandal, and recently announced another 800MW project to be offered for bidding later this year, as part of the kingdom’s plans to put 9.5GW of renewable power into its grid by 2023.
“We have about 1GW [of wind projects] in the pipeline,” said Mr de Diego Arozamena.
“We don’t have enough credentials yet to participate on the wind side, but we are willing to start participating in consortiums for our teams to start learning.”
The firm, through its fully-owned Spanish subsidiary Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, was awarded a contract last week for the construction of a 540GWh hybrid solar-wind project in Chile, which will power nearly a quarter of a million homes in the Latin American state.
In addition to new business, ALJ Energy’s future plans include managing and extracting value from plants it has developed worldwide.
“We’re looking at keeping the plants, the plan was to sell the plants once operational and now we’re reevaluating that,” said Mr de Diego Arozamena.
The developer announced last week it had reached financial close on a 342MW solar farm in the Mexican state of San Luis de Potosí.
“It should start construction in the next two-three weeks,” said Mr de Diego Arozamena.
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
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Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.0-litre%20twin-turbo%20V6%20and%20electric%20motor%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EMax%20power%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20700hp%20at%207%2C500rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EMax%20torque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20720Nm%20at%202%2C250rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eight-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E0-100km%2Fh%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.0sec%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETop%20speed%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E330kph%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh1.14%20million%20(%24311%2C000)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECarrie%20Cracknell%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDakota%20Johnson%2C%20Cosmo%20Jarvis%2C%20Richard%20E%20Grant%2C%20Henry%20Golding%20and%20Nikki%20Amuka-Bird%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
On sale: now
