00:00Alex, just tell us why Aramco is buying back the stake, because it does mirror a similar move by Adnock last year, right?
00:07Hi, Lizzie. Thanks for having me on.
00:09Yeah, no, I mean, this is potentially huge news if it goes through that BlackRock has been considering the sale of its stake and the leasing rights to Saudi Aramco's natural gas pipeline network, and they might be selling it back to Saudi Aramco.
00:22So, you know, it's a huge deal if it goes through, because BlackRock led the consortium that acquired those leasing rights back in 2021, and that deal was around $15.5 billion.
00:37So, you know, if it does go through, it's a huge deal for both BlackRock and also Saudi Aramco.
00:45OK, and so are we going to see more like this from Aramco then?
00:48Yeah, I think so, potentially. I mean, it's a difficult one because Aramco's debt levels are, you know, they're near a three-year high at the moment.
00:58So it's a difficult time almost to be acquiring such assets.
01:05But I think it sort of suggests, in my view, that Aramco is seeing an increasing value in increasing its stake in a business that's vital to the kingdom's energy infrastructure.
01:15And I think it sort of plays into a bigger trend where we saw in Abu Dhabi, the asset manager, Lunate, it bought back BlackRock and KKL's 40% stake in Adnox oil pipeline last year.
01:30So we are starting to see this as a bit of a trend of the market, and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
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