Two sources familiar with the matter told Archyde.com that the National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) is in exclusive talks to buy the cooling assets of the district shopping mall management company, Majid Al Futtaim.
The two sources, who declined to be named, said Tabreed had hired Standard Chartered to advise on the operation.
Archyde.com reported in 2020 that HSBC was advising Majid Al Futtaim, which is developing shopping malls across the Middle East.
One of the sources who spoke to Archyde.com in 2020 had said that Majid Al Futtaim could seek to raise around 500 million dirhams ($136 million) for the unit, which includes refrigerators connected to its hotels and malls.
District cooling companies deliver chilled water through insulated pipes to cool offices, industrial and residential buildings.
Tabreed’s transaction activity witnessed a boom after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, as it snapped up assets in locations such as Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, which includes the Louvre Museum branch. It also acquired 80% of the activity of the real estate development company Emaar Cooling Downtown Dubai for 2.48 billion dirhams.
The demand for district cooling, which usually grows with the development of new real estate and commercial activities, continues to be strong in the UAE, which experiences very high temperatures in the summer.
(Archyde.com)