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ADNOC’s retail arm is hunting for deals in Africa and Southeast Asia days after its $1 billion swoop on a South African gas station chain.
“Africa is the destination of choice, but we’re not limited to it,” ADNOC Distribution’s CEO Bader Al Lamki told Semafor. “Southeast Asia is somewhere we’re also open to exploring.”
The company is also evaluating expansion in parts of the Middle East and North Africa where it doesn’t yet operate fuel stations. ADNOC has a retail footprint in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and now South Africa. The main criteria for deals is that the acquisition has pay their way from day one, Al Lamki said.
“Is it value accretive or not? Can we add value to the business or not? Can we extract value from the business or not? That’s what counts,” Al Lamki said. ADNOC Distribution expects takeover of 580n Shell stations would meet this criteria, immediately delivering a 6% increase in earnings per share and a 13% boost to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) once the deal closes in 2027.
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ADNOC has been on a global dealmaking spree over the past year, particularly in US liquified natural gas projects. It invested in a Texan LNG project, bought a stake in Argentinian gas blocks, and completed a $16.9 billion takeover of German chemicals firm Covestro. The company launched an LNG trading platform, and is targeting 47 million tonnes of annual LNG trading by 2035, equivalent to around 11% of the current global market.
For the gas stations business, staying focused on the bottom line and not blowing cash for the sake of it has already paid dividends, Al Lamki said. When he joined five years ago, the company generated about $670 million in EBITDA — that has jumped to $1.16 billion last year, the strongest on record.
This momentum is carrying into 2026. First-quarter net income rose 21% year-on-year, and Al Lamki expects the pace to hold in the second quarter. The company plans to add as many as 70 new stations this year.