Sunday 10 November 2024

Delivery Hero to Pursue IPO of 15% of Talabat Unit in #Dubai - Bloomberg

Delivery Hero to Pursue IPO of 15% of Talabat Unit in Dubai - Bloomberg

Delivery Hero SE unveiled plans to list its Talabat unit in Dubai in what could be among the region’s biggest initial public offerings of the year.

The German food delivery firm plans to sell a 15% stake in its Middle Eastern subsidiary, according to a statement on Sunday, retaining a majority interest. It could amend the size of the offering subject to required approvals of the Securities and Commodities Authority of the United Arab Emirates, it added.

The share sale could raise about $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported in September.

The listing is expected to take place in mid-December, the Berlin-based company said, with proceeds set to be used for general corporate purposes and to optimize its capital structure.

Talabat currently plans to pay a minimum dividend of about $100 million in April relative to fourth quarter financial results, plus another $400 million in two installments in October 2025 and April 2026, according to the statement. Thereafter, dividends are expected to be paid twice each calendar year, with Talabat targeting a net income payout of 90%.

The IPO comes amid a flurry of new share sales in the Middle East. Oman’s state-owned energy company raised a record $2 billion by listing its exploration and production unit last month, and is preparing to sell shares in its methanol business.

Private sector companies are also rushing in. Lulu Retail Holdings Plc raised $1.72 billion in the United Arab Emirates’ biggest listing of the year. IT services firm Alpha Data is eyeing an Abu Dhabi listing, while online cosmetics retailer Nice One, health care provider Almoosa Health, and tech firm Ejada are lining up IPOs in Saudi Arabia.

Talabat reported $6 billion in gross merchandise volumes in 2023, up from just under $4 billion in 2021. Its free cash flow increased by 64% year-on-year to $226 million in the six months ended June.

The Dubai IPO could value Delivery Hero’s “crown jewel” at as much as $12 billion including debt, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report.

However, the entry of aggressive competitors could dent Talabat’s market share and valuation, analyst Tatiana Lisitsina wrote. She cited the example of Saudi Arabian firm Jahez, whose profit outlook was hit by the entry of Chinese food delivery giant Meituan. While Talabat doesn’t operate in the kingdom, lucrative Gulf markets could attract competitors, Lisitsina noted.

Delivery Hero has been cementing its position in the Middle East through acquisitions. It bought the Indian firm Zomato’s food delivery business in the UAE in 2019, and the online grocery platform InstaShop in 2020. The Talabat brand also has a presence in Bahrain, Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan.

#Saudi, #UAE: Goldman (GS), Wall Street Firms Split Time Between Riyadh, #AbDhabi - Bloomberg

Saudi, UAE: Goldman (GS), Wall Street Firms Split Time Between Riyadh, Abu Dhabi - Bloomberg

BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink was among headliners at Saudi Arabia’s annual Davos-style investment confab in October. Days later, he popped up on a social media post from Abu Dhabi’s $1.5 trillion man, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The $11.5 trillion asset manager Fink runs recently received approval to set up its regional headquarters in Riyadh. It’s also teaming up with the Abu Dhabi royal on one of the largest efforts to date to bankroll the build-out of data warehouses and energy infrastructure.

The biggest firms on Wall Street operate across geographies and top executives often fly to multiple countries while visiting a region. But Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which are competing to be the Middle East’s main business hub, offer unique opportunities: The cities control over $1 trillion in sovereign wealth each, making them among the biggest pools of capital in the world.

Sheikh Tahnoon — one of Abu Dhabi’s two deputy rulers, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and brother to its president — had conversations with many executives who also spoke at the FII, according to posts on the royal’s X profile.

That list included Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer Ted Pick, Blackstone Inc.’s Steve Schwarzman and Ruth Porat of Alphabet Inc., which is partnering with Saudi Arabia on an artificial intelligence hub. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO David Solomon also dropped by in Abu Dhabi shortly after his firm announced its new Riyadh office, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The two cities have rolled out a series of initiatives in their quest for greater global relevance. Riyadh is asking international firms to boost their local presence, or risk losing business. That’s prompted the likes of General Atlantic and Goldman to beef up their operations in the kingdom.

Some others have been reluctant about making Riyadh their main hub because their employees prefer the lifestyle in the UAE. To further sweeten the deal, Abu Dhabi has also rolled out a series of perks, including a lifestyle-support program for incoming financiers.

But many firms looking to raise cash or plug into dealmaking driven by ambitious diversification programs are trying to keep a foot in both camps.

BlackRock, for instance, said its new Riyadh base will help the firm expand operations across the Middle East and not just in the kingdom. Goldman continues to have a significant presence in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and Barclays Plc, which is considering re-entering Saudi Arabia after a decade, said it intends to grow its team in the UAE as well.

Meanwhile, investment bank Lazard Inc., which held sale talks with Abu Dhabi fund ADQ last year, is making a big push in Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg News has reported.

While both cities have embarked on similar drives to lure the world’s biggest firms, the past couple of years have also brought into sharp relief shifting priorities for officials in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, and the kinds of partnerships they’re seeking.

For instance, Saudi Arabia, with its large and relatively young population, is prioritizing projects aimed at developing its infrastructure, which significantly lags the UAE.

But with finances constrained as a result of weak oil prices, it needs to bring in more foreign capital - hence the desire to get the world’s biggest infrastructure fund managers into the country. Case in point: Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.’s new $2 billion Middle East vehicle.

“People used to come to us and ask for money,” Yasir Al Rumayyan, the governor of the kingdom’s nearly $1 trillion Public Investment Fund, said on a panel at the FII last month. “We are now seeing a shift from people wanting to take our money to people wanting to co-invest.”

Saudi Arabia is also becoming a regional opportunity for investment banks. The kingdom is in the midst of a vast privatization program to raise cash to fund investment plans, and that’s transformed Riyadh into a hotspot for initial public offerings.

For Abu Dhabi, with energy riches outweighing the ability of the local economy to digest and which already boasts some of the best infrastructure in the region, the focus is using those assets to prepare for the post-oil economy.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the emirate’s $1 trillion wealth fund continues to invest predominantly outside the country. At the same time, the city has drawn some of the world’s biggest hedge funds.

That’s prompted officials to start expanding the financial hub’s jurisdiction to a neighboring island, in a move that will give it 10 times as much space. Months after billionaire Alan Howard said Abu Dhabi could become a global financial center, Bloomberg News reported the hedge fund he set up manages more money from the emirate than anywhere else.

But here too, there’s a balancing act.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, the face of Abu Dhabi’s push to draw hedge fund luminaries, was in Riyadh for FII. He was spotted in traditional Arab garb ahead of the event and later, on a panel, explained the reasons behind his ties to the region.

The billionaire was effusive in his praise of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “I think his Royal Highness is a great leader,” he said. “He’s almost like a Deng Xiaoping of China, in a sense, or a Lee Kuan Yew (of Singapore).”

#Saudi bourse falls on oil; #Qatar gains | Reuters

Saudi bourse falls on oil; Qatar gains | Reuters


Saudi Arabia's stock market ended slightly lower on Sunday after a fall in oil prices at the end of last week, while banking shares helped lift Qatar's benchmark index.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (.TASI), opens new tab fell 0.2% in a choppy trade, hit by a 4.6% fall in ACWA Power Company (2082.SE), opens new tab and a 3.3% decline in Saudi Arabian Mining Co (1211.SE), opens new tab.

Oil prices - a catalyst for the Gulf's financial markets - settled more than 2% lower on Friday as traders grew less fearful of prolonged supply disruptions from a hurricane in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, while China's latest economic stimulus packages failed to impress some oil traders.

Deflationary pressures in the Chinese economy have been a heavy drag on oil prices this year, with customs data showing a sixth consecutive month of year-over-year declines in the country's crude oil imports for October.

Separately, the general chief of staff of Saudi Arabia's armed forces, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, will visit Tehran on Sunday to meet with his Iranian counterpart and discuss defence ties, Iran's state media reported the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff as saying.

The Qatari index (.QSI), opens new tab - which resumed trading following a two day break - gained 0.5%, with Qatar Islamic Bank (QISB.QA), opens new tab advancing 1.1% and the Gulf's biggest lender Qatar National Bank (QNBK.QA), opens new tab was up 0.4%.

Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index (.EGX30), opens new tab added 0.4%, with top lender Commercial International Bank (COMI.CA), opens new tab rising 1.4%.