Acwa Power considers secondary listing after Saudi Arabia

Acwa Power, the Saudi Arabian power and water project developer, says it may seek a secondary listing after an expected flotation in Saudi Arabia next year.

“We are committed to broadening the shareholder base and our next step indeed is to bring in our Saudi public as a shareholder through a primary listing in Saudi Arabia,” Paddy Padmanathan, the firm’s chief executive, said yesterday .

“Our expectation is to subsequently do a secondary listing.”

Acwa has yet to decide the size of the stake it would sell in Saudi Arabia or where its secondary listing will be.

In October last year, the company appointed Saudi Fransi Capital, a unit of Banque Saudi Fransi, as an adviser for its initial public offering.

International Finance Corp, a unit of the World Bank, last year invested 375 million Saudi riyals (Dh367.2m) for an undisclosed equity stake in Acwa.

Acwa has projects in 13 countries and plans to enter Indonesia next year.

It is bidding for power projects in Oman, submitted pre-qualification bids for projects in Kuwait, and is planning to bid for a coal project in Morocco.

Acwa has 17,500 megawatts of contracted capacity, which is growing by about 15 per cent annually.

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