FTSE adds Adnoc Drilling to 3 of its global equity indices

Adnoc Drilling has become the latest UAE entity to join FTSE Russell’s global equity indices after the company reposed confidence in the key business growth and budget resolutions at its inaugural meeting of the newly formed board.

Adnoc Drilling has been added to the FTSE Global Large Cap Index, the FTSE Emerging Index, and the FTSE All-World Index, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

This follows the company’s recent highly successful initial public offering (IPO) on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX), which marked the largest-ever ADX listing to date. The index publisher, against whose indexes funds benchmark trillions of dollars of assets, earlier announced the same to clients on October 4.

5-year business plan approved

Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Adnoc managing director and Group CEO, as well as Adnoc Drilling Chairman, chaired the Adnoc Drilling board meeting and approved its ambitious five-year business growth plan for 2022 to 2026, as well as the 2022 budget.

Dr Al Jaber said the inclusion of Adnoc Drilling into three world-renowned FTSE Indices marks another strong endorsement from the global financial markets in both the company and Abu Dhabi’s thriving equity capital market. It also further increases the attractiveness of Asnoc Drilling’s shares to the international investor community, with the potential to add to the diversification of its overall investor base, he said.

“Adnoc Drilling will continue to play a pivotal and leading role in enabling Adnoc’s ambitious production capacity growth plans,” Dr Al Jaber said.

Adnoc Drilling to remain an active players

Adnoc Drilling continues to drive its growth plans and remains active in a number of mega-tenders in Abu Dhabi, while also actively pursuing the further expansion of its discrete services portfolio and market share in the oil field services segment. If awarded, these tenders will expand the company’s portfolio outside of the integrated drilling services segment with awards expected during 2022.

Adnoc Drilling is a unit of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Baker Hughes retains a five per cent share in the company. Adnoc Drilling went public earlier this month via a $1.1 billion initial public offering through the sale of a 11 per cent share in the company to investors.

Adnoc Drilling shares rallied 30 per cent on listing day and have traded consistently at that level since, closing at Dh2.97 on October 14, 2021, up 29.1 per cent from the IPO offer price, reinforcing continuously strong investor demand.

— muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com