#UAE cable maker Ducab may consider IPO to support future expansion

UAE cable maker Ducab may consider IPO to support future expansion

UAE cable maker Ducab may consider an initial public offering to support future expansion, its group chief executive has said.

“This is a viable strategy going forward in order to basically fuel our expansion plans … it’s an option that is available for us,” Mohammed Al Mutawa told The National in an interview.

The company, jointly owned by Abu Dhabi holding company ADQ and the Investment Corporation of Dubai, has no plans to sell shares in the company at the moment, he said.

There has been an IPO boom in the Middle East, with a number of companies listing their shares on the regional stock markets such as the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, the Dubai Financial Market and Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul as economies recover from the coronavirus-induced slowdown on the back of higher oil prices and government reforms.

The recent listings include Adnoc Gas, Adnoc Logistics and Services and Al Ansari Financial Services.

Middle East IPOs raised more than $23 billion in 2022 from 48 listings, compared with $7.52 billion from 20 offerings in the previous year.

That was the highest share for the Gulf region after 2019, when Saudi Aramco went public in a $29 billion offering, the world’s largest.

Ducab, founded in 1979, produces copper and aluminium cables, as well as metal rods that are used in a number of sectors such as power, oil and gas, construction, renewables and rail.