The Twist of 2024: A Creative Shift in Partnerships

SPOTLIGHT

Joint Venture Index: Q1-Q3 2024 In Review

Restructuring a joint venture?

You are not alone. Venture restructurings vaulted to their highest recorded levels in H1 2024 – a 26% jump from H1 2023. 

We’re also witnessing the rise of creative deals with novel terms and structures, spurred by pressure from geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

Read more about these and other key trends in our just-published recap of Q1-Q3 2024 dealmaking (Ankura Joint Venture Index).

Listen to our team’s online briefing of this year’s deal trends (Joint Venture and Partnership Deal Trends: Q1-Q3 2024 In Review Online Briefing).

Have any questions? 

Contact the report’s authors Lois D’Costa Fernandes, James Bamford, Joshua Kwicinski, and Ben Pollak.

THE ALCHEMIST'S MOST POPULAR

Top Articles of 2024

We rounded up 2024’s most-read articles. Here are the top five.

1. Joint Venture Valuation: 4 Steps to Handling Hard-to-Value Contributions. A process to address complex valuation issues and close perceived valuation gaps.
2. How to Structure a Joint Venture: The Five Essential Elements of JV Dealmaking. Guidance on structuring a JV with a strong chance of success, and on getting to a “quick no” or “good yes” in JV deal negotiations.
3. Automotive Industry: Driven by Partnerships. An analysis of the automotive industry reveals that joint ventures and partnerships are crucial for driving the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles.
4. What’s In and What’s Out: Designing Contribution Structures in Joint Ventures. A framework for designing contribution structures – i.e., what will each partner bring, and how will the partner make those assets available?
5. Operationalizing Joint Venture Governance. An introduction to the Joint Venture Governance Framework – a tool that defines how the governance of a joint venture is intended to work in practice.

IN THE NEWS

Deals and Dealmakers We’re Watching

We’ve seen an increase in JV and partnership activity from companies in the natural resources industry. Here are some recent deals that caught our eye:

• Lundin Mining and BHP’s joint acquisition of Filo Corporation, followed by the establishment of a 50-50 joint venture to consolidate Filo and Lundin’s co-located copper projects.
• TotalEnergies’ joint venture with Adani Green Energy to create a 50-50 solar power development in India.
• Saudi Aramco’s purchase of a 22.5% stake in its joint venture with Sumitomo Chemical, Petro Rabigh, as part of a turnaround initiative.
• Trafigura’s acquisition of a 50% stake in Spain’s Meroil Tank, which will now operate as a 50-50 joint venture.
• Baker Hughes and Akastor ASA’s proposed IPO of their 50-50 oilfield services JV, HMH Holding.
• Energy Transfer and Sunoco’s 67.5-32.5 venture, combining their respective crude oil and produced water-gathering assets in the Permian Basin.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Upcoming JV Events

Webinar: Decarbonizing Mining – Partnerships and Ecosystems

December 11, 9:00 - 10 AM ET, Virtual 

Join Ankura and Partners in Performance for a discussion on decarbonizing the mining industry. Discover data and insights on the technologies and trends driving efforts to tackle Scope 1 and 2 emissions, along with success stories from leading mining companies. We will explore the importance of ecosystems enabled by partnerships to advance decarbonization most effectively. Our panel will offer perspectives across diverse geographies and product portfolios for successful collaboration.

Register Now

CATCH UP

Insights You Might Have Missed

Highlights from our Downstream & Chemicals Roundtable

We gathered 20+ joint venture dealmakers and governors across 15+ companies in November to discuss pressing partnership topics in the downstream and chemicals industries. Key insights included:

1. Having clear views on what role each partner will play in the JV (i.e., the JV’s operating model) is essential in managing the JV deal process.
2. There is no one “right” way for a JV director to address a conflict of interest between what’s best for its appointing parent and what’s best for the JV.
3. Approximately a third of participants do not believe their company is “strong” at bringing capabilities to their JVs

Missed the roundtable?

Please contact Tracy Pyle or Anand Swaminathan to connect 1-1 and learn more about the event, and/or receive an invitation to our next Downstream & Chemicals Roundtable in Q2 2025.

Highlights from Our Clean Energy Roundtable

We convened 40+ dealmakers and project developers from 25+ companies in October to discuss non-traditional partnerships in the clean energy sector. The event also featured a spotlight on Chevron and Mitsubishi Power’s green hydrogen JV, ACES Delta. Participants shared some key themes: (1) most of their deals in the past 12 months haven’t met expectations, and (2) managing deals post-close has been harder than structuring and negotiating them up-front.

Missed the roundtable? 

Please contact Benjie Jenkins or Shishir Bhargava to connect 1-1, request more information, and/or receive an invitation to the next Clean Energy Roundtable in Q2 2025.

Partnership Conversation: Aligning Incentives and Managing Misalignments

In September, we hosted dealmakers from Neste and Marathon Petroleum to discuss how they successfully aligned incentives and prevented misalignments while negotiating a recent 50/50 JV, Martinez Renewables Fuels. We walked through the deal negotiation process and how to handle common challenges – including steps and tools dealmakers can use to prevent partner misalignments. 

Watch the full conversation here

Stay tuned for our next release, Q1 2025