The $16bn start-up

Peter Barker-Homek sits at the head of one of the fastest growing energy investment companies in the world, and controls most of the electric power and water utilities in his company's home town. So, it is with a sly grin on his face that he casually describes his company, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (or TAQA), as "a US$16bn start-up with an AA- credit rating".

While this statement is technically true, as the company is only two years old, it does require some illumination. Sure TAQA is a start-up; but it is resting upon a foundation of capital, expertise, and seemingly unlimited government resources. Although few doubted that the venture would succeed when it was established in 2005, many industry experts give much of the credit to Barker-Homek and his ability to close a flurry of deals and make all the right calls in guiding his company through his 18-month tenure.

Comparing the company that was established two years ago and its current form; the only conclusion is that some remarkable transformative agent must have been applied. That agent of change is the youthful 46-year old former US Marine pilot, and Harvard educated New Yorker, Peter Barker-Homek. He has enjoyed a very successful career in the energy sector and has vast experience to run a global energy investment company, but this latest stint in Abu Dhabi was unplanned.

"The first time I came to Abu Dhabi I was 12 years old with my parents as we were headed to India. I remember it was pure desert", Barker-Homek says. As an energy executive with BP, he visited the region many more times, conducting investment appraisals in the UAE, Kuwait and Yemen, and about 18 months ago, he took the job as CEO of TAQA. In what is a recurring point that Barker-Homek raises - his focus on shareholder interests - he says his role is to create "a global energy company for the government of Abu Dhabi and the investors in the ADSM (Abu Dhabi Securities Market)".

Even though he admits that he had "no clear path to Abu Dhabi, but a series of recurrences in my life", the professional life he has led over the past 20 years inevitably positioned him to lead an aggressive and acquisitive energy company. Prior to joining TAQA, he was a senior advisor on the mergers and acquisitions team at BP, and before that, he held a similar role at British Gas covering deals in Mediterranean countries, Southeast Asia and Latin America. He began his career at Merrill Lynch, and quickly moved on to Pacific Enterprises, a US utility that was expanding internationally in the power, gas distribution, gas storage sectors. After going through this exhausting resume, Barker-Homek smiles and says "that gets me to 46 and CEO of TAQA".

When Barker-Homek took the helm, TAQA was a six-month old company. It was established pursuant to an Emiri Decree as a public joint stock company, with two dominant shareholders: the government of Abu Dhabi owns 51% through ADWEA (Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority), and 24.1% is held by the Farm Owners' Fund (a government-run fund that provides farmers with an income stream and provide long-term support for farming in Abu Dhabi). The remaining 24.9% is traded on the ADSM, with ownership limited to UAE nationals.

When it floated in 2005, TAQA had a majority stake in six of the nine water and power producers in Abu Dhabi - assets that were transferred from ADWEA, which gave the new company control over 85% of the water and electricity supply in the emirate. Its current domestic power generation and water desalination plants portfolio consists of approximately 7000 megawatts of installed capacity and 591 million gallons per day of net water desalination capacity. As of September last year, six months into the Barker-Homek era, TAQA's total assets stood at just under US$9bn.

To make it into the US$16bn energy holding company with assets and operations in 10 countries including Canada, Ghana, India, Morocco, Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the US, Barker-Homek immediately set in place a long-term acquisition strategy. The aim was to diversify revenue sources across the sector, focusing broadly on oil and gas exploration, power generation, desalination, renewables, pipelines, gas storage, and liquid natural gas re-gasification.