#Dubai Taxi Jumps in Trading Debut After $315 Million IPO - Bloomberg

Dubai Taxi Jumps in Trading Debut After $315 Million IPO - Bloomberg

Dubai Taxi Co. gained as much as 19% in its debut after a $315 million initial public offering which was the city’s first privatization in over a year.

Shares in Dubai Taxi opened at 2.2 dirhams on Thursday, according to data from the Dubai stock exchange website. The stock was offered at 1.85 dirhams, which was at the top of a marketed range. The share sale was hugely oversubscribed, drawing orders worth over $41 billion, as investors’ appetite for listings in the Persian Gulf remains unwavering.

The region has been one of the few busy IPO spots globally, with deal activity subdued in other markets due to aggressive interest rate hikes and market volatility. High oil prices, strong local investor demand and government drives to list state-owed companies have instead propelled a flurry of IPOs in the Gulf, partly driven by large pools of capital seeking investment opportunities.

Dubai Taxi is part of a busy year-end for Middle Eastern IPOs, with a crypto-related firm jumping 35% on its Abu Dhabi debut on Tuesday, while health-care platform PureHealth Holding is seeking to raise $1 billion in a listing in the United Arab Emirates’ capital.

Dubai is the Gulf’s best performing market this year, with the benchmark index up almost 20% so far, partly driven by a jump in property-related shares.