Kuwait agreed to a long-term lease of its oil pipeline network in a $16 billion deal with Blackstone, Brookfield, and KKR. The investors will acquire a 49% stake in a joint venture with Kuwait Oil Company, which will have a 20.5-year lease on the pipelines and lease them back to the state oil company, mirroring a structure used by Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia to raise money from their oil infrastructure.
It is the largest foreign investment in Kuwait’s history and confirms that some of the world’s biggest dealmakers are still happy to deploy capital in the region, despite Iranian missile and drone attacks. Blackstone is also opening an office in Kuwait.
Kuwait, which raised a $6 billion bond recently, is trying to attract more Wall Street firms and foreign investors as it works to develop its domestic economy, deploying a similar strategy to that rolled out elsewhere in the Gulf.