Eni signs exclusivity agreement with KKR for potential sale of 20% to 25% stake in Enilive

Eni announced July 23 that it has signed a temporary exclusivity agreement with KKR, a leading global investment firm, aimed at progressing the due-diligence phase and completing the drafting of documents related to the sale of a 20 percent to 25 percent stake in Enilive based on a company valuation between 11.5 billion and 12.5 billion euros (between USD$12.5 billion and USD$13.6 billion).

Enilive is Eni’s company dedicated to biorefining, biomethane production, smart-mobility solutions including Enjoy car sharing, and the distribution of all energy carriers for mobility, through its more than 5,000 Enilive stations in Europe, where there is a wide range of products including HVOlution biogenic fuel (100 percent hydrotreated vegetable oil, bio-LPG and biomethane.

Eni added that the strong interest shown in this period by leading institutional financial investors could lead to the subsequent sale of a further stake of up to 10 percent of Enilive.

While a final transaction is subject to agreeing definitive documentation, both parties are committed to negotiating the terms of a potential transaction, Eni stated.

“This step represents another example of the development of Eni’s satellite-model strategy, attracting strategically aligned capital from valuable new partners at attractive multiples, funding our growth and confirming the value we are creating in these new businesses,” Eni said.

Enilive aims to provide progressively decarbonized services and products for the energy transition, contributing to Eni’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 also through industrial assets that include the Venice and Gela biorefineries in Italy, the St. Bernard Renewables LLC (50 percent joint venture with PBF Energy) in Louisiana, and 22 biomethane production plants in Italy.

In January, Eni confirmed the transformation of the Livorno refinery in Italy into a biorefinery.

In addition, two more new biorefineries in Malaysia and South Korea are being evaluated.

Enilive plans to increase its biorefining capacity to more than 3 million tons per year (tpy) by 2026 (double the end of 2023) and more than 5 million tpy by 2030.