ADES Buys Saipem's Saudi Jack-Up Fleet for $285m and Adds SAR 3.8bn to Its Backlog

ADES Holding (TADAWUL:2382) just bought itself more revenue visibility. On 24 June 2026 its subsidiary ADES Saudi agreed to acquire Saipem's entire shallow-water drilling business in the Kingdom for USD 285 million, roughly SAR 1.07 billion, in a deal that adds close to SAR 3.8 billion to a backlog that was already at a record. For a company that has spent the last year buying scale, this is the next bolt-on, and it lands on the earnings line rather than just the press release.

The numbers

The purchase is structured on a debt-free, cash-free basis and will be paid in cash at closing, funded through ADES cash and existing financing facilities (fact, per the 24 June disclosure). It brings over five jack-up rigs, three owned (Perro Negro 7, 8 and 10) and two leased (Perro Negro 11 and 13), four of them working in Saudi waters and one in Mexico under a bareboat arrangement that lets Saipem keep operating it.

Put the price against what is being bought. The target, Saudi Arabian Saipem Limited, booked FY2025 revenue of SAR 636 million, about USD 170 million (fact, per Saipem). That puts the SAR 1.07 billion price at roughly 1.7 times trailing revenue, before any synergy. The SAR 3.8 billion backlog addition is contracted future work, not the purchase price, and it equals about 11% of the SAR 34.47 billion group backlog ADES reported at 31 March 2026.

What changes in the outlook

Before this deal the market carried ADES on a fast-consolidating but margin-pressured story. Q1 2026 revenue jumped 62.6% YoY to SAR 2.39 billion and profit rose 22.5% to SAR 240.9 million, but that growth was carried by the late-2025 Shelf Drilling acquisition, and management was explicit that margins would only recover gradually as integration runs. FY2025 net profit was SAR 818 million, up a thin 1.93%, which tells you the bottleneck has been profitability per rig, not top-line growth.

This acquisition reinforces both sides of that read. It pushes the operating fleet past the 96 rigs reported in Q1 and deepens ADES grip on its home market, which is the revenue-visibility positive. The risk is the same one already on the table: another integration on top of Shelf Drilling, and a backlog that grows faster than margins. The price looks disciplined at about 1.7 times the target's revenue, and the cash-plus-facilities funding avoids equity dilution. On the earnings run rate the deal is additive from Q3 once it closes, but accretion to net profit depends on what happens to the cost of risk and rig-level margins, and ADES has not put an accretion number on the table. The stance moves from neutral to constructive on revenue visibility, and stays cautious on margins until a post-Shelf quarter proves the leverage is real. Estimate, not company guidance.

What to watch

Regulatory approvals and a Q3 2026 close are the gating items. The next hard read is ADES Q2 2026 results, where the Shelf Drilling integration margin trajectory either confirms or breaks the constructive case before this deal even consolidates.