#UAE’s first SPAC sets IPO offer price at $2.72 per share

UAE’s first SPAC sets IPO offer price at $2.72 per share

ADC Acquisition Corporation (ADC), the UAE’s first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which plans to raise 367 million dirhams ($99.9 million) through an IPO listing, said on Tuesday it will float 36.7 million shares with an offer price of 10 dirhams ($2.72) per share.

ADC, which was set up last month by ADQ, an Abu Dhabi-based investment holding company, and Chimera Investments, said the subscription period will run from 12 May until 19 May 2022.

Shares are available for purchase to retail and professional investors and will be listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), the company said in a statement.

SPACs, or blank-check firms, raise funds to acquire private companies with the purpose of taking them public by listing on stock markets rather than through traditional IPOs. For the past couple of years, SPACs were thought to be a game-changer and companies rushed into deals. But following new tighter guidelines set by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and underperforming share prices, they have lost some of their sheen.

Early this year, the UAE's Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) approved a regulatory framework for SPACs, becoming the first nation in the Gulf to do so.

Syed Basar Shueb, Chairman of Chimera Investments and Vice Chairman of ADC, said: “With the upcoming IPO on ADX, ADC becomes the first SPAC to be based and listed in the UAE. This will facilitate quicker access to capital and operational expertise, result in lower fees, more transparency and allow investors across the region the opportunity to tap into a highly dynamic and fast-growing new space within the UAE’s capital markets landscape.”