Dubai Restarts Privatizations After a Year With Taxi IPO - Bloomberg
Dubai kickstarted its privatization program after a one-year hiatus with the planned initial public offering of its taxi business, as share sales gather pace in the United Arab Emirates in the final weeks of 2023.
The Dubai government will sell a 25% stake in Dubai Taxi Co. in the domestic listing, amounting to 624.75 million shares, according to a statement on Monday. The price range will be announced on Nov. 21 and the subscription period will end on Nov. 29 for institutional investors and a day earlier for retail buyers. The shares are expected to start trading on Dec. 7.
The IPO could raise about $300 million, Bloomberg News has reported.
Dubai Taxi’s IPO will be the first share sale by the government in more than 12 months, after it raised $8.3 billion selling stakes in four state-owned companies in 2022, including the city’s main water and electricity utility. The IPOs are part of a plan unveiled about two years ago to list 10 state-owned companies in a bid to boost flagging trading volumes and catch up with IPO drives in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.
Dubai paused the listings this year, contributing to a drop in the overall IPO volumes in the Middle East. Such transactions have raised $7.9 billion so far in 2023, a 54% drop year-on-year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Still, the region is holding up as a bright spot for listings despite the war between Israel and Hamas and a gloomy environment for IPOs globally due to fears over high interest rates. The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel put investors on edge and caused a sharp drop in regional stocks, although many have since pared those losses.
Dubai’s benchmark index is the best performer in the Gulf this year, rising almost 19% partly thanks to a jump in property shares.
No comments:
Post a Comment