Shareholders of Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) have voted to approve the transfer of the majority of Abu Dhabi Power Corporation’s (ADPower) water and power generation, transmission and distribution assets to Taqa.
Under the terms of the agreement, ADPower will transfer to TAQA the majority of its water and power generation, transmission and distribution assets in exchange for 106,367,950,000 new shares.
The transfer, which is scheduled to close in the third quarter of 2020, will create one of the largest utilities companies in the region, which will have power generation assets of 22.7GW and contracted water capacity of 968 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).
Taqa will serve more than 1 million customers across the UAE through 80,000km of electricity transmission lines and 20,000 km of water pipelines.
ADPower submitted an offer to Taqa with principal terms and conditions under which ADPower would transfer the majority of its water and electricity generation and transmission and distribution assets in return for shares on 3 February.
ADPower revealed at the time that it was planning to maintain Taqa’s existing listing on the Abu Dhabi Exchange, would make the new combined entity one of the largest companies on the emirate’s stock exchange.
ADPower has emerged as a key entity in the UAE’s utilities sector following the restructuring of Abu Dhabi’s power and water companies over the past three years. The most significant reforms were announced in November 2018, when Emirates Water & Electricity Company (Ewec) was established to replace Adwec (Adwec) as the offtaker and client for delivering new utilities projects across Abu Dhabi.
Ewec was established to not only replace Adwec in Abu Dhabi, but also to assume responsibility for buying and selling electricity and water production from the Federal Electricity Company (Fewa), the state utility provider for the Northern Emirates.
