International Holdings acquires PAL Cooling

|By Arabian Post Staff| International Holdings Company, one of the UAE’s foremost holding companies with investments in diversified operating businesses, signed today an Implementation agreement to acquire PAL Cooling Holding LLC (PAL) – subject to final shareholders and regulatory approval – which allows International Holdings Company to enter into the utilities market. The acquisition will see the two companies conduct a share-swap arrangement, with IHC acquiring PAL’s entire share capital in exchange for PAL’s shareholders receiving 1,311,428,571 of IHC’s newly issued ordinary shares as a strategic investor
The acquisition represents a move into a new strategic area for IHC, strengthening the organization’s position as a well-diversified holding company with a portfolio of high-quality investments. The arrangement also marks another step in IHC’s long-term strategy to create and sustain long-term value for its shareholders.
Following the acquisition, IHC’s business interests will include one of UAE’s core district cooling assets, in addition to industrial aquaculture, agricultural, and real estate projects. The utilities space is one of the GCC’s most promising growth sectors, and by acquiring PAL’s portfolio, IHC will gain a number of advantages. These include a higher certainty of continuous cash flow, enhanced profitability, and various cost efficiencies across the company’s current pool of assets. Also, the acquisition also spells good news for IHC’s shareholders. As an ‘accretive acquisition’, the agreement will increase IHC’s earnings per share, while also seeing the combined value of the two companies rise higher than the sum of IHC and PAL as separate entities.
For PAL and its shareholders, the transaction will accelerate PAL’s strategy as a provider of cleaner, more cost-effective cooling in the GCC’s growing district cooling sector, which today makes a significant contribution to the UAE’s diversification agenda.