News

The largest mergers and acquisitions in 2018

2018 brought almost record $ 3.4 trillion to M & A industry, and also changed the very nature of mergers and acquisitions. Such a process was caused by growth in the first half of the year, despite a slowdown in the fourth quarter.

It is noteworthy that some of the deals that hit the news headlines last year were not large-scale deals designed to make companies bigger or create a synergistic effect. Rather, they focused on acquiring new opportunities or opening up new product or service segments. According to Bain & Company, the volume of transactions for the first time in 2018 exceeded numerical scales, and they account for 51 percent of all strategic transactions worth over a billion, which may be the biggest event in the field of mergers and acquisitions in the last decade.

According to the head of the international practice of mergers and acquisitions of Bain & Company, ...

UAE's ADNOC awards $1.36bn contract to build artificial islands

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced on Wednesday the award of a dredging, land reclamation and marine construction contract to build multiple artificial islands in the first phase of development of the Ghasha concession.

The contract awarded to the UAE’s National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) is valued at AED5 billion ($1.36 billion), the energy giant said in a statement.

The Ghasha concession consists of the Hail, Ghasha, Dalma, Nasr and Mubarraz offshore sour gas fields.

Under the terms of the contract, NMDC will construct 10 new artificial islands and two causeways, as well as expand an existing island, Al Ghaf. The project is expected to take 38 months to complete and will provide the infrastructure required to further develop, drill and produce gas from the sour gas fields in the Ghasha concession.

The successful bid by NMDC prioritized UAE sources for materials, as well as the use of mostly local suppliers, manufacturers and ...

Shell Doubles Renewables Investment

Shell plans to increase the annual amount of money it invests in renewable energy to US$4 billion, the supermajor’s head of gas and new energy, Maarten Wetselaar told The Guardian in an interview.

The figure is double the maximum current annual investment Shell has allocated for cleaner energy initiatives but the increase will only materialize if these initial investments prove to make financial sense.

“I would like my current business to be financially credible enough for not only the company, but shareholders, to want to double it and look at more,” Wetselaar told The Guardian.

Shell has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent over the next five decades as it shifts to more renewable energy, including biofuels, and boosts operational efficiencies, in the latest sign that one of the world’s top Big Oil players is determined to move away from its principal business.

"Our view is if society needs to ...

Qatar Petroleum to invest $20 billion in U.S. in major expansion

Qatar Petroleum (QP) is looking to invest at least $20 billion in the United States over the coming few years, its chief executive told Reuters, after the Gulf Arab state unexpectedly quit OPEC this month.

Saad al-Kaabi, who holds the energy portfolio of the world’s top liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier, also said on Sunday the company aimed to announce foreign partners for new LNG trains needed for an ambitious domestic scale-up by the middle of next year, but was keeping open the possibility of going it alone.

Qatar, a tiny but wealthy country is one of the most influential players in the LNG market due to its annual production of 77 million tonnes. It plans to boost capacity 43 percent by 2023-2024 and will be building four liquefaction trains for the LNG expansion.

As part of its more than $20 billion investment push ...

Hyundai investes $ 9.3 bln in the development of hydrogen fuel

Hyundai Motor Group, together with its suppliers, plans to spend $ 7.6 trillion ($ 9.3 billion) on the development and modernization of the production of hydrogen fuel cells.

As part of its FCEV Vision 2030, announced overnight, the company intends to build 700,000 fuel cell systems per year by 2030.

About 500,000 of them will be used in passenger and commercial vehicles on fuel cells, and the rest in electric generators and other modes of transport, including drones, boats, trains and forklifts.

"We will expand our role outside the automotive transport sector and play a key role in the transition of global society to clean energy, helping to make hydrogen an economically viable source of energy."

/Source: Caradvice/

Audi to invest 14 billion euros in e-mobility, self-driving cars

Volkswagen's premium auto brand Audi said on Tuesday it would invest 14 billion euros ($15.9 billion) through 2023 in electric mobility, digitalisation and autonomous driving.

Overall, the company's total projected expenditure for the next five years amounts to 40 billion euros, the company said in a statement. It also plans restructuring measures that will generate 1 billion in earnings uplift already in 2018.

"This planning round bears a clear signature: We are taking a very systematic approach to electric mobility and will be much more focused in future," said Audi's interim management board chairman Bram Schot.

/Source: TheEconomic times/

Orsted outlines plans for $30 billion investment in green energy

Danish energy firm Orsted has unveiled an "extensive investment program" that will see it invest around 200 billion Danish krone ($30.26 billion) in green energy between 2019 and 2025.

Breaking the figures down, Orsted said that investments in offshore wind farms were expected to make up 75 to 85 percent of the program, with onshore investments accounting for 15 to 20 percent. Bioenergy and customer solutions were expected to represent 0 to 5 percent of the spending.

"Today, our portfolio consists of 11.9 GW (gigawatts) of offshore and onshore wind farms and biomass-fired combined heat and power plants that are either in production, under construction or have been given final investment decision," Henrik Poulsen, Orsted's CEO and president.

"Towards 2030, it's our strategic ambition to reach an installed capacity of more than 30GW, provided that the build-out creates value for our shareholders," Poulsen added. 

Orsted is a world leader in offshore wind. In September, ...

France’s schneider electric inaugurates $565 mln vc funding unit

French energy management and automation solutions provider Schneider Electric has inaugurated its own dedicated venture capital (VC) funding unit, Schneider Electric Ventures.

Schneider Electric said the dedicated VC funding unit will boost its innovation ecosystem and nurture the future’s transformational and disruptive innovations.

The unit will have up to 500 million euros ($565 million) of cash to inject in incubation projects, partnerships with entrepreneurs, and specialized funds, and would welcome ideas from innovators and entrepreneurs eager to turn their concepts into reality.

The company said that Schneider Electric Ventures is its way of helping innovators turn their vision into reality. It demonstrates the company’s commitment to innovation, helping innovators and entrepreneurs who share Schneider’s values develop their ideas and gain access to markets.

/Source: InvestSize/

View Announces $1.1 Billion Investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund to Meet Accelerating Demand

View, the leader in dynamic glass, today announced a $1.1 billion investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund. Demand for View’s intelligent windows is rapidly growing as companies increasingly recognize the benefits of modernizing their work environments to improve the health and productivity of their employees.

View makes the entire skin of buildings intelligent for the first time. This improves human health and wellness by preserving unobstructed views, automatically letting in the optimum amount of natural light, and greatly reducing heat and glare. It also cuts the building energy consumption by up to 20 percent.

View Dynamic Glass is installed in 35 million square feet of buildings and is growing rapidly. There is compelling evidence that View helps improve the health and wellness of occupants. Harvard Business Review published a study identifying natural light as the #1 desired office perk. Another recent study found significant health benefits associated with View Dynamic Glass over ...

Lab-grown meat could be in restaurants by 2021

A Dutch company that presented the world's first lab-grown beef burger five years ago has received funding to pursue its plans to make and sell artificially grown meat to restaurants from 2021. Mosa Meat said it raised 7.5 million euros ($8.8 million), mainly from M Ventures and Bell Food Group. M Ventures is an investment vehicle for German pharmaceuticals company Merck KGaA. Bell Food is a European meat processing company based in Switzerland.

Smaller investors include Glass Wall Syndicate, which supports several companies looking into cultured meat or meat substitute products aimed at consumers concerned about the environmental and ethical impact of raising and slaughtering animals.

Maastricht-based Mosa Meat, which has in the past also received 1 million euros from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, said it hopes to sell its first products -- most likely ground beef for burgers -- in 2021. The aim is to achieve industrial-scale production 2-3 years later, ...