First Dubai IPO in five years sees surge of interest as economy booms | Reuters

First Dubai IPO in five years sees surge of interest as economy booms | Reuters:



"The first initial public offer of shares on Dubai's main stock market for five years was 36 times subscribed, a sign of massive interest in equities among retail investors as the emirate's economy booms. 




Investors subscribed 10 billion dirhams ($2.7 billion) to the fixed offer of 275 million shares in Marka IPO-MARK.DU, which were priced at 1 dirham each, Jamal Al Hai, chairman of the company's founders committee, said in a statement on Friday. The excess money will be returned to investors.



IPOs dried up in Dubai when its financial crisis erupted five years ago, and since then restrictive listing requirements have encouraged several United Arab Emirates companies to list in London rather than at home.



But the Dubai economy is now healthy again, and the Dubai Financial Market's (DFM) main index .DFMGI is up 51 percent year-to-date, making it the world's strongest major market. Marka's IPO may pave the way for more IPOs in coming months."



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