BlackRock Fund Acquires Stake in Saudi-Bahrain Pipeline from Bapco Energies
(Reuters) — A BlackRock-managed fund has bought a minority stake in a pipeline linking Saudi Arabia and Bahrain from Bahrain state oil firm Bapco Energies, the two firms said on Wednesday, as the small Gulf state tries to extract value from its energy assets.
A fund managed by BlackRock's Diversified Infrastructure business bought the stake in Saudi Bahrain Pipeline Company (SBPC), they said in a joint statement.
No value was disclosed for the deal, which marks Bapco Energies' first asset monetization and is set to support Bahrain, the region's most indebted economy and among its smallest oil producers.
Bahrain has been introducing reforms to make doing business easier, create more jobs, and attract foreign investment to boost economic growth.
Earlier this month, it introduced a Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax, effective Jan. 1, 2025, that will ensure a minimum 15% tax rate on profits for certain multinational enterprises.
"We are implementing a range of projects and initiatives that support comprehensive national development and capitalizing on our asset and operations management," Bapco Energies' CEO Mark Thomas said in the statement.
The deal follows similar moves by private equity firms targeting pipeline assets in neighboring Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where in 2019 BlackRock and KKR KKR.N bought a 40% stake in the entity that leases ADNOC's oil pipelines for $4 billion.
In April, the stake was sold to Abu Dhabi investor Lunate.
BlackRock and Bapco Energies said the energy firm will retain a majority stake and governance over SBPC, which owns a portion of the 112-km pipeline supplying crude oil from Saudi Aramco to Bapco Refining, Bahrain's national refinery.
The BlackRock-managed fund and Bapco Energies have also signed an MoU "to explore collaboration on future Bahraini infrastructure and decarbonization projects," the firms said.
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