Abu Dhabi’s investment fund Mubadala Investment Co. will enter into exclusive talks with Petrobras to purchase Brazil’s second-largest refinery, the Brazilian state-owned oil company said in a securities filing on Thursday.
Reuters was the first to report earlier on Thursday that Mubadala was on an inside track to acquire the refinery, known as Rlam, after beating back competition from India’s Essar Group, according to three people close to the negotiations.
Petroleo Brasileiro, as Petrobras is formally known, confirmed in a filing that Mubadala had submitted the best offer and was invited to negotiate.
Mubadala will discuss the contract terms with Brazil’s Petrobras in an exclusive negotiation expected to take several weeks, the people said on Thursday, declining to be named as the talks were not public at the time.
If the contract changes significantly, Petrobras will call back competitors for a second round of bids based on price, the sources said.
Indian conglomerate Essar also made a binding offer for Rlam, as Reuters reported in June, and could compete again for the refinery if Petrobras decides to retender it.
Mubadala and Essar did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Petrobras did not provide any other details outside its securities filing.
A final winner will only be disclosed by Petrobras after all stages are concluded.
Rlam, which is based in the northern state of Bahia and has a 330,000 barrels a day capacity, is the first of a group of eight refineries Petrobras plans to sell to end its near monopoly in fuel processing in Brazil.
Mubadala set for exclusive talks with Petrobras to buy Bahia refinery
https://arab.news/ru9st
Mubadala set for exclusive talks with Petrobras to buy Bahia refinery
- Mubadala had submitted the best offer and was invited to negotiate
- Abu Dhabi’s investment fund beat back competition from India’s Essar Group
Work suspended on Riyadh’s massive Mukaab megaproject: Reuters
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has suspended planned construction of a colossal cube-shaped skyscraper at the center of a downtown development in Riyadh while it reassesses the project's financing and feasibility, four people familiar with the matter said.
The Mukaab was planned as a 400-meter by 400-meter metal cube containing a dome with an AI-powered display, the largest on the planet, that visitors could observe from a more than 300-meter-tall ziggurat — or terraced structure —inside it.
Its future is now unclear, with work beyond soil excavation and pilings suspended, three of the people said. Development of the surrounding real estate is set to continue, five people familiar with the plans said.
The sources include people familiar with the project's development and people privy to internal deliberations at the PIF.
Officials from PIF, the Saudi government and the New Murabba project did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Real estate consultancy Knight Frank estimated the New Murabba district would cost about $50 billion — roughly equivalent to Jordan’s GDP — with projects commissioned so far valued at around $100 million.
Initial plans for the New Murabba district called for completion by 2030. It is now slated to be completed by 2040.
The development was intended to house 104,000 residential units and add SR180 billion to the Kingdom’s GDP, creating 334,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2030, the government had estimated previously.
(With Reuters)
