UAE Oil Giant’s $13 Billion Wager on Riding Out the Energy Shift
- Adnoc offers to buy Covestro in its biggest-ever acquisition
- Covestro can manage chemical industry cycles, Adnoc’s Salmeen
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Abu Dhabi’s state energy company is making its biggest global move yet by acquiring a key chemical-maker in Europe’s heartland, and is wagering the deal will help it weather the energy transition.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. offered nearly $13 billion to buy Germany’s Covestro AG in what’s set to be the largest Middle Eastern acquisition of a European firm. The takeover would give the state behemoth control over a pioneering company that supplies materials for some of the world’s most prominent phone and car makers, a bet that growth in demand for products like plastics will outlast that for oil.