Global Heavyweights Launch $30B Infra Platform Deal

Key Moments

Strategic Alliance Targets Multi-Billion-Dollar Deal Flow

BlackRock’s GIP has entered into a collaboration with Singapore’s Temasek, Abu Dhabi’s newest sovereign wealth fund L’IMAD, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to create an infrastructure investment partnership aiming to deploy $30 billion across the Gulf and Central Asia, according to a joint statement issued on Thursday.

The partners plan to raise a mix of equity and debt to finance infrastructure opportunities, focusing on both new-build (greenfield) and existing (brownfield) assets. Target sectors include energy, transportation, and logistics, areas that the firms highlighted as central to the region’s growth agenda.

The group also indicated that the platform may pursue selected opportunities in the broader Middle East and North Africa region. The statement did not provide details on the expected fundraising schedule or how equity ownership will be divided among the founding institutions.

Key Players and Market Context

The initiative brings together some of the most active regional infrastructure investors with one of the largest global alternative asset managers. BlackRock finalized its purchase of GIP in 2024 in a transaction that valued the infrastructure-focused manager at approximately $12.5 billion.

The move underscores sustained appetite for infrastructure investments in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets amid the Iran war, which has triggered volatility in global energy markets and caused disruptions to business activity in the region.

Recent transactions in the region have highlighted the scale of ongoing opportunities. Reuters reported last month that a growing number of lenders have been working on a potential $7 billion sale of a stake in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s crude oil pipeline network. In the previous year, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco signed an $11 billion agreement for infrastructure supporting its Jafurah gas development with a consortium led by GIP.

“The partnership also reflects continued global investor interest in the UAE and the wider region, as destinations for long-term capital, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, a growing pipeline of investable opportunities and an increasingly mature investment landscape,” the firms said in the statement.

Abu Dhabi Investment Push and L’IMAD’s Growing Role

The announcement coincided with news from Abu Dhabi this week of a $15 billion investment pipeline designed to pull in private finance for a variety of infrastructure projects, further reinforcing the emirate’s push to position itself as a hub for long-term capital.

“Infrastructure forms one of the key pillars of our investment strategy, especially in markets where demand is underpinned by structural trends,” said L’IMAD’s managing director and CEO Jassem Bu Ataba Al Zaabi.

L’IMAD, which emerged on the global stage last December, has rapidly built scale and is now regarded as a major investment player with assets estimated at $300 billion.

Partnership Overview and Recent Deal Benchmarks