UAE's Mubadala joins consortium investing in Saudi Aramco oil pipelines

UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co., which manages $243 billion in assets, has joined an EIG-led consortium that previously acquired a 49% stake in newly formed Aramco Oil Pipelines Co. for $12.4 billion.

Mubadala didn't disclose the stake size in a June 8 statement. Aramco will retain a 51% stake after the Mubadala deal, it said in the statement. EIG is a global infrastructure investor.

Under the deal announced April 9, Aramco Oil Pipelines Co., a newly formed unit of the state oil company, will lease usage rights in Aramco's stabilized crude oil pipeline network for 25 years, in exchange for a tariff paid by Aramco for the crude flows through the network, backed by volume commitments.

The $12.4 billion that Aramco receives will be upfront proceeds, the Saudi company said at the time.

Aramco's pipeline asset sale mimics transactions struck by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. in the last two years.

ADNOC inked in June last year a deal worth more than $10 billion with a group of investors to sell a 49% stake in its gas pipelines a year after striking a similar transaction for its oil pipelines.

A consortium grouping Global Infrastructure Partners, or GIP, Brookfield Asset Management, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, South Korea's NH Investment & Securities and Italy's Snam will invest in select ADNOC gas pipeline assets valued at $20.7 billion.

ADNOC in 2019 also clinched a $5 billion deal, with a consortium that includes GIC, BlackRock Inc., KKR & Co and Abu Dhabi Retirement Pensions and Benefits Fund, to sell select pipeline infrastructure and collectively hold a 49% stake in ADNOC Oil Pipelines, a subsidiary of the parent company.