MEOG: Bapco Energies to monetise assets

Bahrain’s state oil and gas holding company Bapco Energies said this week that it could announce plans to leverage its assets to raise funds, more than 18 months after it hired advisers to support such a move.

Speaking during this week’s ADIPEC, Bapco Energies CEO Mark Thomas said: “We could be making some announcements within the next six months on potential for some asset monetisation.”

He added: “We look at our neighbours and see what they've been doing, particularly in infrastructure where you have a low risk, utility type of return. It's something that we're definitely considering. We've got an active programme looking at various possibilities.”

The six-month timeline was the same Thomas gave in February last year when he announced “a very clear picture of where we want to go”.

Lazard is acting as the firm’s financial adviser, while the company, formerly Bahrain’s Oil & Gas Holding Co. (nogaholding), recently having been rebranded following completion of a new strategy designed by Boston Consulting Group.

This includes consolidation of subsidiaries “into what makes a sensible organisational construct.” Thomas said: “This is something that all of the big energy companies are doing.”

Bapco Energies was previously the investment arm of the National Oil & Gas Authority (NOGA), which was abolished by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in September 2021 with the firm’s functions assumed by the Ministry of Oil.