By: AGBI

Al Mansour Holdings (AMH), owned by a member of the Qatari royal family, will take a 19.9 percent stake in Australia-listed Invictus Energy and will provide financial support for the latter’s natural gas project in Zimbabwe.

The company, backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Jabor bin Jassim Al Thani, will provide up to $500 million to bring the Cabora Bassa project to commercial production, Invictus said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange on Wednesday.

The investment was made at a share price of A$0.095. The funding will be used for the Cabora Bassa works programme, including the drilling of Musuma-1 well in the eastern portion of the concession.

The funding is contingent upon entering into separate agreements and is subject to the timing of ongoing development work at Cabora Bassa.

AMH will get one seat on the Invictus board, the statement said.

In addition, AMH and Invictus will establish a joint venture, Al Mansour Oil & Gas, an upstream oil and gas company focused on acquiring, producing, and near-term developing oil and gas assets across Africa.  

The venture will focus on unlocking value from undeveloped or underutilised fields through increased production, infrastructure development and more reliable energy sources.

Several high-impact asset transactions are at an advanced stage, with the first expected to be completed before the end of the year, the statement said. 

As part of the agreement, Invictus Energy will be responsible for identifying and maturing upstream opportunities, as well as managing acquired assets.

AMH will finance the joint venture’s activities, including asset acquisitions, developments and operations.

This month AMH committed to invest $31 billion across various economic sectors in Botswana and Zambia.

Africa has an economy worth $2.8 trillion, a population of 1.4 billion, 65 percent of the world’s arable land and a third of the world’s mineral wealth. 

Gulf states have come to regard the continent as crucial to their economic, food and security interests, John Manners-Bell, CEO of Transport Intelligence Insight and founder of Foundation for Future Supply Chain, wrote in AGBI.