TAQA looking to acquire U.S. companies amid expansion drive

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., the UAE capital’s omnipresent power and water utility known as TAQA, may be getting ready for a shopping spree in the U.S.

The government-owned company, whose largest shareholder is sovereign wealth fund ADQ, will focus its current plans for international expansion in the American arena, CEO Jasim Hussain Thabet tells Reuters.

“The U.S. is a key market for us,” Thabet said. “If the right opportunity presents itself for TAQA, we would be pursuing that.”

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology as well as CEO of the national oil company ADNOC, told President Donald Trump during his visit two weeks ago that the government plans to boost energy investments in the U.S. over the next decade to $440 billion.

TAQA, which raised $1.8 billion from a bond sale last October, would generally prefer to acquire a fully integrated company with generation, networks and “a pipeline of growth,” Thabet said.

The company’s Masdar unit last year acquired a 50% stake in U.S. renewable energy firm Terra-Gen.