Four in for ADDC O&M

16 December 2005
Four bids were submitted on 14 December for the eight-year operations and management (O&M) contract for Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC). A second O&M tender, covering Al-Ain Distribution Company (AADC), is due to be issued for bid in the second half of January. The O&M contracts are seen as the first stage in the partial privatisation of the two companies, wholly owned by Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (ADWEA - MEED 9:9:05).

The bidders for the ADDC contract are Suez Environment and Veolia Environnement, both of France, France's Saur Internationalwith Germany's Siemens, and the UK's United Utilities. Fifteen international companies were prequalified for the contract, which is expected to be awarded in January. ADDC has about 170,000 water and 200,000 electricity customers.

The same prequalifiers will be eligible to bid for the AADC O&M contract, which will be tendered once the ADDC work has been awarded. The Al-Ain distributor has 50,000 water and 90,000 electricity customers.The O&M contracts are part of a 12-month privatisation programme that will see the government sell 40 per cent of its ownership in each of the two companies. The first stage of the sale will involve the private placement of a 20 per cent stake in each company to local institutional investors. A further 20 per cent holding in each company will then be offered through an initial public offering (IPO).

The financial adviser is BNP Paribas; the US' Dewey Ballantineis the legal adviser (MEED 9:9:05).

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.