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UAE green energy firm Masdar eyes Saudi investments

September 11th, 2012

Abu Dhabi government-owned green energy firm Masdar is looking into investing in Saudi Arabia, chief executive Sultan Al Jaber said on Tuesday.

“We are proactively seeking partnerships in Saudi,” Jaber told reporters, declining to give any details about the kind of project, or the investment capital under consideration.

“I can’t tell how much now because it depends on the market and the regulatory framework but we are seriously and closely looking at the Saudi market,” he said.

Investing in renewable energy projects is an increasingly popular topic among the top oil exporters of the Middle East but actual green energy installations are few and far between.

Masdar has made significant renewable energy investments in countries where political and public support for clean energy brings with it big incentives, especially in Europe.

But back in the United Arab Emirates, it has only around 10 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity up and running, with a 100-MW concentrated solar plant – the world’s biggest – under construction and another 150 MW planned nearby.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, announced plans in May to possibly build up to 41,000 MW of solar power plants within two decades at an estimated cost of over $100 billion. (Reporting by Maha El Dahan, writing by Humeyra Pamuk, editing by Daniel Fineren)

Tags: chief executive Sultan Al Jaber, Masdar, Saudi Arabia, UAE
Posted in All News, GCC, Middle East, News | No Comments

Masdar, Devt Bank Japan to invest in renewables

January 17th, 2012

The initiative will be through a renewable energy project platform, Masdar said on Monday.

“Given the lack of financing available to fund operational renewable energy projects, it is an opportune time to invest in projects that can provide stable returns to Masdar Capital and DBJ,” chief executive Sultan al Jaber said.

Masdar Capital and DBJ both plan to commit significant capital to a platform that will target stable returns from investing in renewable energy operating assets that use bankable technologies, he said.

This platform will look to make minority equity investments in operational assets, targeting assets managed by reputed players in the renewable energy space, al Jaber said.

Initially, the platform will target onshore wind and solar photo voltaic assets in countries with relatively low sovereign risk. A pipeline of over 1 gigawatt of operational solar and wind assets fitting the platform’s mandate have already been identified.

Masdar Capital, the investment arm of Masdar, has over $540 million invested across the Masdar Clean Tech Fund and DB Masdar Clean Tech Fund, jointly managed with partners.

Masdar also said it was investing in solar power plants in Afghanistan and Tonga as part of its international support programme. Work has just begun in Tonga and on completion the project will deliver 13 percent of the island’s total power needs, said al Jaber.

In war-torn Afghanistan, 600 homes in eight villages will be provided solar power, he said. (Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Dan Lalor)

Tags: Abu Dhabi, Energy, Japan, Masdar, OECD, renewables, UAE
Posted in GCC | No Comments

Imprudent: expert responds to Abu Dhabi’s theme park plans

December 14th, 2011

Over the couple of months, Abu Dhabi has been a strong topic of conversation among the Kipp team. We can’t help it. The capital has been making news for some of the decisions it’s taken in the last quarter of the year.

Back in October, although it reiterated that every intention is still there to go ahead with the projects, Abu Dhabi announced its decision to delay the construction of its museum. Then in November, we talked about the job cuts experienced across the country, which most notably included the capital’s clean energy champion, Masdar.

Then early this December, we looked at these necessary steps backward that Abu Dhabi has taken, looking at its projects with a more pragmatic perspective and cutting down where it feels it can. This was then followed by the news that there were job cuts at the Ferrari World theme park. The company says the redundancies were due to a schedule change. And it’s not a long stretch to see that the schedule changes to theme park openings is due to a lower than expected visitor footfall.

So considering there’s been a general housekeeping and tightening of belts across Abu Dhabi’s projects, you can imagine our surprise to see reports that Abu Dhabi is planning to open a Dhs3.4 billion theme park. And so this Tuesday, we wrote about Abu Dhabi’s not so amusing amusement park plan, where our own Eva Fernandes discussed this head scratcher of an announcement.

And this Wednesday, we received an official letter response from the President of the International Theme Park Services, Inc (ITPS), Dennis Speigel regarding Abu Dhabi’s decision to go ahead with building Adventure World.

“In short, Ms. Fernandes was spot-on in her article. A venture of this nature at this time and at the proposed expense is not prudent. Projects such as Ferrari World, Al-Ain Wildlife Park & Resort, or the proposed Universal Studios and Sea World parks, were all ill-conceived and never had a remote possibility of happening – at least not successfully. Had the proposed projects been built, they would have been disasters of enormous proportion.”

ITPS is a US-based consulting company specialising in analysing, developing, designing and operating theme parks around the world.

What about you, dear Kipper? Do you think going ahead with building a theme park at this shaky economic times is ill-conceived or a risky move that will eventually pay off?

Tags: Abu Dhabi, adventure world, Dennis Speigel, Ferrari world, ITPS, job cuts, Masdar, museum, theme parks
Posted in Cover Story, Opinion | 5 Comments

Abu Dhabi’s necessary two steps backward

December 11th, 2011

Even with a recent report that Abu Dhabi is now expecting to handle a million passengers a month, Abu Dhabi’s business landscape looks pretty shaky despite great momentum its aviation industry displays.

Recently, Kipp reported on Masdar job cuts and the rescheduling of the museum projects in the capital. But the downward movement hasn’t stopped there. Last week, Ferrari World has had to let go of 100 employees. The cuts, the company said, was merely due to a schedule change. One could deduce that the schedule change has been due to the less than expected traffic to the amusement centre.

The thing here to holds us off raising alarm bells is that Abu Dhabi still stands by the execution of its Abu Dhabi Vision 2030. It’s just that they are now more realistic about the realisation of these projects. Of course it’d be nice for this ‘recalibration’ to not have a negative knock-on effect on employees (ie losing their jobs) but in this case we are certain these decisions couldn’t be helped, right?

And this recalibration isn’t over. The latest weak link revealed is Abu Dhabi’s property market, which Jones Lang LaSalle (JLS) expects will “remain sluggish through the initial months of the new year due to suppressed demand coinciding with increased supply,” according to an article on Gulf News.

So be wary, Kippers. Abu Dhabi, while still comparatively strong is undergoing a kind of checks and balance as it reviews its projects and aligns them with the current market conditions. It’s never a good thing to cut jobs. But we do think it’s a good thing to address issues like this as early as possible to curtail maximum exposure to economic crisis.

Key to the property market’s recovery in Abu Dhabi, according to JLS, is the government’s “reinvigoration of its major investments” and “investing in physical and social infrastructure to stimulate job growth”.

Across the board, the reality is that the capital isn’t as protected and unaffected as we all hoped. As the cracks begin to show and the global economic crisis continues to try and chip away at Abu Dhabi’s ambitions, it is the way in which the capital reacts to these realities that will make all the difference.

Tags: Abu Dhabi, airport, Ferrari world, Jones Lang LaSalle, Masdar, property, UAE, Vision 2030
Posted in Analysis, Cover Story, Insights | 1 Comment