New Name for OMV Shareholder

One of OMV’s two core shareholdings has been transferred, the Austrian oil and gas group said March 9. The 24.9% stake previously held by Abu Dhabi state-owned International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) has  been transferred to another Abu Dhabi state holding, Mubadala.

This follows the $125bn merger of the former Mubadala with IPIC announced January 21, 2017 by Abu Dhabi’s ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan into a single sovereign wealth fund, officially named Mubadala Investment Company.

Although the transfer was effected on January 19, OMV was only notified on March 7 and it noted on March 9 that a law giving rise to the Mubadala-IPIC merger has yet to be published in Abu Dhabi.

The 31.5% OMV stake held by Austrian state holding OBIB is unchanged; the latter and IPIC had a long-term shareholders’ pact to manage their combined 56.4% majority interest in OMV, which is not expected to be affected by the share transfer.

IPIC’s 4.06% stake in Portuguese utility EDP was similarly transferred in January to Mubadala.

A similar transfer is expected at Spain’s Cepsa and Austrian petchem firm Borealis -- although their websites as of March 10 still listed IPIC as shareholder -- and at other IPIC affiliates worldwide. Cepsa is 100% owned by IPIC, while Borealis is 64% IPIC and 36% OMV-owned.

Mark Smedley