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Taqa to sell $3.5b Samurai bonds

ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (Taqa) is launching a $3.5 billion credit facility in Japan to fund acquisitions and is seeking a credit rating there to sell Samurai bonds, Taqa's chief executive said.

About 10 banks, including Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, are managing the three-year facility, Chief Executive Peter-Barker Homek told Reuters in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

The company, better known as Taqa, is 75 per cent owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, which controls over 90 per cent of the oil reserves in the UAE.

The credit facility would be used to finance acquisitions in Japan and around the world, a Taqa spokesperson said.

Barker-Homek said the firm is seeking the Japanese credit rating to sell yen-denominated bonds at a later stage to broaden its investor base and because "Japan and UAE relations are excellent".

Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi is assisting Taqa in getting the rating, he added. Japan buys about 40 per cent of the UAE's oil exports.

The firm has repeatedly tapped the debt markets. Last week it closed a $1 billion convertible bond and sold $1.5 billion of global notes in a two-part sale.

Taqa plans to triple the value of its assets to $60 billion by the end of 2012 from around $21 billion now and in June Taqa said it expected to announce four new deals worth around $5 billion this year, including a joint venture with a major US utility.

Taqa last year made acquisitions worth some $11 billion around the world, including the purchase of Canada's PrimeWest Energy Trust for $4.98 billion.

haseeb@khaleejtimes.com