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.
MBS tells Trump in Riyadh he’ll try to invest $1 trillion in U.S.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Donald Trump and a solid portion of the world’s business elite on Tuesday that he hopes to fulfill his pledge to invest $600 billion in the U.S. and might even hit the $1 trillion mark sought by the White House.
In turn, Trump praised MBS as a visionary leader and hailed the U.S.-Saudi alliance as a profitable enterprise for both sides as the two spoke at a business conference in Riyadh and the president kicked off a four-day swing through the Gulf that will also take him to Qatar and the UAE.
“Today we hope for investment opportunities worth $600 billion, including deals worth $300 billion that were signed during this forum,” the Saudi leader said in a speech at the capital city’s King Abdulaziz International Conference Center. “We will work in the coming months on the second phase to complete deals and raise it to $1 trillion,” he said.
A good chunk of that commitment will come from an agreement to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, which the White House called “the largest defense cooperation agreement” that the U.S. has ever signed.
Trump beamed as he followed MBS onstage to address an audience that included Tesla founder Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, Saudi Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and hundreds of other corporate leaders, investors and government officials from the two countries.
The President thanked MBS for setting the $1 trillion goal and talked for close to an hour about his affection for the kingdom, ticking off several of the deals signed by the two countries during the day.
“So, number one, I like visiting with you, and we’ve known each other very well, and I really believe we like each other a lot and, number two, for the United States, we’ve brought tremendous investment in and tremendous jobs, and we continue to service your great country very well,” Trump said.
The U.S. leader also said he maintains a “fervent hope” that Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel, as the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco did in 2020, though he added, “you’ll do it in your own time.”
Earlier in the day, the Saudi Crown Prince took the unusual step of greeting Trump in person when the president landed on a flight from Washington at King Khalid International Airport outside Riyadh.
Unlike former President Joe Biden’s tense visit and cautious fist bump in 2022, MBS stood on the tarmac and patiently watched Trump descend from Air Force One onto a royal purple carpet. The two shook hands and Trump gave the prince a warm shoulder tap before they strode together to the waiting motorcade.
The greeting underlined the intentions on both sides to make Trump’s first regional trip in his second term a public success and broadcast the closeness of the U.S.-Saudi alliance.
Inside the Al-Yamamah Palace where a lavish reception and lunch were held, both leaders were accompanied by top Cabinet ministers and a roster of business leaders, with Trump’s entourage including Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
Conversations at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum – held at the same site beside the marble-lined Ritz-Carlton Hotel as the annual Future Investment Initiative conference – were focused on concrete dealmaking and illustrated the seriousness in both countries to make the most of the rare event, said Tally Zingher, Managing Director of the U.S.-headquartered boutique advisory firm Blue Laurel.
“Being here allows me to listen and observe firsthand how the Saudis are articulating their priorities and how those priorities have already manifested into concrete opportunities for U.S. companies,” Zingher told The Circuit.
Among the headliners addressing the conference were Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Minister of Investment; Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance; Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Minister of Energy; Bandar Alkhorayef, Minister of Industry and Minerals and Faisal Alibrahim, Minister of Economy & Planning.
The U.S. delegation was headed by Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury; Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce; and David Sacks, the White House Special Advisor on AI and Crypto.
From the Saudi business world, the conference featured Muhammad Al Jasser, Chairman, Islamic Development Bank; Nabeel Koshak, CEO of Saudi Venture Capital; Marc Winterhoff, Interim CEO of Lucid; John Pagano, Group CEO of Red Sea Global; Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power; Tony Douglas, CEO of Riyadh Air and Jerry Inzerillo, Group CEO of Diriyah Co.
U.S. financiers at the forum included Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Franklin Templeton’s Jenny Johnson, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio, LionTree’s Aryeh Bourkoff and BDT & MSD Partners’ Dina Powell McCormick.
From the U.S. tech industry, Palantir’s Alex Karp joined the forum as well as Alphabet/Google’s Ruth Porat, Amazon’s Andy Jassy, IBM’s Arvind Krishna and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon.
With planemakers and defense contractors set to reap billions in Saudi deals, the conference featured Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, Lockheed Martin’s Michael Williamson, Honeywell’s Ken West and Halliburton’s Jeff Miller.
Among other speakers at the summit, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is a perennial fixture at the FII conference and hosted a spinoff conference in his city last February, where Trump spoke. Also appearing was Gianni Infantino, President of world soccer’s governing FIFA organization, after Saudi Arabia was picked to host the 2034 World Cup.
MBS holds $600 billion call with Trump as new term begins
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and U.S. President Donald Trump are picking up where they left off four years ago.
After congratulating Trump on his return to Washington in a phone call on Wednesday, Prince Mohammed, who is also Prime Minister, said he’s willing to boost investment and trade with the U.S. by $600 billion through 2028.
The Saudi kingdom hopes to participate in the new U.S. administration’s “ability to create unprecedented economic prosperity and opportunity,” the Crown Prince said in the SPA dispatch.
Trump responded on Thursday during a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“I’ll be asking the Crown Prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1 trillion,” Trump said, adding, “I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them.”
Trump, appearing on screen from the White House during his 15-minute speech, took questions afterward from a panel in Davos that included Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne and Banco Santander Chair Ana Botin.
Trump forged a close relationship with the heir to the Saudi throne during his first term and said he selected the kingdom for his first overseas trip as president in 2017 because of its commitment to buy U.S. weapons and other goods.
Shortly after his inauguration on Monday, Trump told reporters he’d consider visiting Saudi Arabia again if it would agree to buy “another $450 billion or $500 billion” worth of U.S. products.
Even before he stood inside the Capitol this week to take the oath of office, Trump made clear that the Gulf’s power players will find a friend in the White House.
Damac Group CEO Hussain Sajwani for one. The billionaire Dubai builder turned up a week into the new year at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where he stood beside the President-elect and pledged an investment of at least $20 billion to build new data centers across the U.S.
Sajwani, who has described himself in press releases as “Trump’s Middle Eastern business partner,” said Damac would move ahead with the plan “if the opportunity, the market, allows us.”
The relationship between the two men dates back a decade when Trump and Sajwani teamed up to develop luxury golf courses in Dubai. Trump said the massive investment in data centers will “keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence.”
A second Gulf financial chieftain who has been circulating around Trump since his election in November is Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund.
Al-Rumayyan is also Chairman of LIV Golf, the upstart PIF-owned tournament that first challenged and now may merge with the PGA.
The new league, which poached some of the PGA’s top stars with contracts of as much as $200 million, announced Tuesday that it would hold a tournament in April at the Trump National Doral resort near Miami for the fourth consecutive year.
Why is Abu Dhabi’s PureHealth buying up U.K. hospitals?
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – The UAE’s biggest health-care network, PureHealth, has made two big-ticket acquisitions since forming last year, looking outside the region to the U.S. and U.K. for growth, while forging a research relationship with Israel.
Last week, PureHealth bought one of the U.K.’s largest independent hospital operators in a $1.2 billion deal. Circle Health Group operates 53 private hospitals and marks PureHealth’s entrance into the British market. The news came three months after a deal was finalized for a minority stake in U.S.-based Ardent Health Services. The $490 million equity investment made PureHealth the only UAE-based health-care provider to ever directly acquire assets in U.S. hospitals and clinics.
ADQ, PureHealth’s largest shareholder, is one of the Middle East’s largest holding companies with a broad portfolio of large Abu Dhabi firms.
As one of several sovereign wealth funds in the capital emirate it also has a unique mandate: to be the lead investor driving the UAE’s economic transformation from petro-state to a knowledge-based economy. Chaired by Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country’s national security adviser and brother to president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, its portfolio includes holdings in agriculture, energy, financial services, health care and life sciences.
ADQ merged its health-care subsidiaries with Alpha Dhabi’s Pure Health Medical Supplies in January 2022. PureHealth, which had branded itself as a research and clinical hub focused on longevity, was the main provider of the nation’s massive COVID-19 testing effort at the time. ADQ’s agreement consolidated the public health provider SEHA, major health insurer Daman and stem cell research center ADSCC into one group, creating a footprint of more than 25 hospitals, more than 100 clinics and more than 160 laboratories in the UAE. Its shareholders include Alpha Dhabi Holding, AH Capital, Ataa Financial Investments as well as International Holding Co., a company also led by Sheikh Tahnoon.
“Going forward, PureHealth will actively seek expansion opportunities globally to further diversify its portfolio and leverage its success in the UAE,” Mohamed Thani Murshed Al Rumaithi, chairman of Alpha Dhabi Holding, a minority shareholder, said at the time.
Earlier this year, PureHealth also struck a strategic partnership with Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, a globally recognized medical research institution.
The two entities said at the time they will closely collaborate on joint clinical research projects, promote the use of advanced technology in health care, expand genetic research initiatives and boost health tourism in both countries.
The alliance will also focus on education and training. Both parties will jointly organize conferences and events, and create clinical specialization projects and internships.
This expansion strategy follows a wider trend in the Gulf, Bloomberg noted last week, with a glut of deals happening between the Middle East and the West in sectors spanning sport, energy, logistics and yes, health care.
“Corporates in the Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are being empowered by their sovereign backers to go out and seek transformative transactions,” Hamza Girach, co-head of Citigroup Inc.’s Middle East and Africa, banking, capital markets and advisory unit, told Bloomberg in an interview. “This is the biggest shift that we are seeing when it comes to dealmaking in the Middle East, which is the emergence of these companies who are seeking overseas growth and keen to expand via acquisitions.”
PureHealth’s deal with Ardent, which was first announced in September 2022, gives PureHealth board observer rights, although not a seat on Ardent’s board of directors. The investment also “does not include plans for either the expansion of Ardent’s physical footprint or collaboration between Ardent and PureHealth in the delivery of care”, according to a statement.
“The conclusion of this transaction marks the beginning of a new phase of growth for PureHealth in which we will build on our global relationships and strengthen our international reputation,” Farhan Malik, managing director and CEO of PureHealth, said at the time.
These global ambitions for UAE health care came after a strong pandemic performance, which to outsiders may have appeared unexpected. Health-care costs were increasing when COVID-19 took hold and the country had a shortage of nurses relative to Western nations, according to analysis by the U.S.-UAE Business Council in 2021. Yet on Bloomberg’s monthly global COVID-19 resilience ranking the UAE regularly sat in the top three, thanks to a high vaccination rate and relatively limited interference to travel and economic activity.
Today, Abu Dhabi has ambitions to capture the world’s first population-wide genetic library and localize pharmaceuticals manufacturing while becoming a destination for clinical trials and research. The genome project is a foundational piece to Abu Dhabi’s ambitious plans for personalized medicine, which also include a connected network of the emirate’s medical records.
