The Dubai utility authority, DEWA records a raise of $6.1 billion (22.32 billion dirhams) after pricing its initial public offering (IPO) at the top on Wednesday, causing it to be the Gulf’s biggest IPO since Saudi Aramco’s 2019 deal.
DEWA will add to the growing volume of issuers in the Gulf, where $3.5 billion has been raised from IPOs this year, data from Refinitiv shows, exceeding European listings even as global markets remain volatile after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Dubai’s deputy ruler and finance minister Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed said in a tweet that DEWA had attracted 315 billion dirhams of demand for the IPO, with buyers including sovereign wealth funds, private funds, and 65,000 individual investors.
State utility DEWA had set an indicative price range of 2.25 dirhams to 2.48 dirhams, with the top-level expected to raise 22.32 billion dirhams for the Dubai government.
As well as raising money for Dubai, the IPO aims to help the Emirate’s exchange compete more effectively with bigger rivals in the region, such as those in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.
DEWA’s public share sale is the biggest to date in the Emirate and is also set to become the region’s largest since Saudi Aramco’s (2222.SE) $29.4 billion IPO, the world’s biggest.
DEWA said in its prospectus the 18% share sale by the Dubai government was aimed at boosting trading liquidity in the stock market and raising its own profile with international investors.
The shares are set to begin trading on the Dubai Financial Market on April 12, with DEWA the largest company on the bourse with a market capitalization of $33.8 billion.
Thus, the demand for DEWA’s IPO has been constantly strong, resulting in its first raise in the size of the institutional offer and boost of the retail portion by almost three times.
