ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that on Friday, November 15, 2024, ITOCHU signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ACWA Power (headquartered in Saudi Arabia; Mohammad A. Abunayyan, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors; hereinafter “ACWA”), the world's largest sea water desalination company and the largest IPP*¹ in the Middle East, regarding strategic collaboration for their water, the environment, and renewable energy businesses (hereinafter the “MOU”).

The two companies signed the MOU at the 29th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 29) held in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan from November 11 to 22, 2024. The companies will combine the strengths and knowledge they have cultivated in long-standing environment-related infrastructure and renewable energy businesses to lead initiatives to address global-scale issues and realize a decarbonized society through joint businesses mainly in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

ACWA is the world's largest private company engaged in power generation, sea water desalination and other businesses around the world. It operates in 13 countries. They have 90 projects in their business portfolio, including operating projects and projects under construction or under development. They have an investment amount of 355.4 billion Saudi riyals (94.7 billion US dollars), a power generation capacity of 65 GW and a sea water desalination capacity of 8 million m³ per day. ACWA's strategy is to scale up its business to three times its current size globally and increase its assets to 250 billion US dollars by 2030 through new projects such as renewable energy, high-efficiency combined cycle*² power generation, green hydrogen^*3 and sea water desalination projects.

ITOCHU has put forth a new management policy, "The Brand-New Deal: Profit opportunities are shifting downstream," and is pursuing a policy of enhancing its contribution to and engagement with the SDGs through business activities" while listening to all stakeholders, including the market, society, and consumers.
Specifically, ITOCHU is promoting renewable energy, water infrastructure, and energy-from-waste business around the world. The collaboration in the MOU will contribute to areas where the economy is expected to develop and/or the population is expected to increase and balance between responding to the needs of society and expanding business based on the Group's corporate mission of "Sampo-yoshi" (Japanese for "good for all three sides": good for the seller, good for the buyer, and good for society).

To learn more about the renewable energy, water infrastructure and energy-from-waste business that ITOCHU has been a part of, see the following:

・Launch of Commercial Operation of Belgrade Waste Management Public-Private Partnership Project, Republic of Serbia| Press Release | ITOCHU Corporation (itochu.co.jp)
・ITOCHU Announces Actions in the Renewable Energy Business in North America| Press Release | ITOCHU Corporation (itochu.co.jp)
・ITOCHU in partnership with ENOWA and Veolia sign Joint Development Agreement to build new generation of desalination plant powered by 100% renewable energy in NEOM| Press Release | ITOCHU Corporation (itochu.co.jp)