Union Coop became the UAE’s first consumer cooperative to list its shares on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), which initiated on July 18.
Trading commenced under the symbol ‘UNIONCOOP’, allowing members to trade Union Coop shares in exactly the same way as the other companies listed on DFM within the Consumer Staples and Discretionary Sector.
As one of the largest retail cooperatives in the UAE, the value of Union Coop’s shareholders’ equity exceeded Dhs3bn. It registered a 2.6 percent increase in net profits in the first quarter of 2022 to Dhs116.5m, while net profits of the full year of 2021 reached to Dhs413m, with a profit margin of 21 percent.
Khalid Al Falasi, CEO of Union Coop, said: “The listing underscores our commitment to protect members’ interests by providing them with a regulated, efficient and transparent marketplace for trading Union Coop shares. We are determined to leverage the facilities and services offered by the capital markets to implement our growth strategy and to provide our members with cutting-edge financial market services through DFM.”
Hamed Ali, CEO of DFM and Nasdaq Dubai, said: “We are pleased to welcome the listing of Union Coop as a significant milestone in line with efforts to implement Dubai’s strategy to develop its financial markets and DFM’s endeavor to diversify investment opportunities offered to investors. This listing will enable investors to participate in a notable success story for one of the prominent cooperatives in the UAE and a leading brand in the retail sector, noting this sector’s importance as a key economic driver in Dubai, which is poised to gain further momentum with the listing on the market as we look to welcome more cooperatives in the future.”
The supermarket chain, also appointed xCube, a company that organises and facilitates the activities of market maker companies in the DFM.
xCube’s role will include ensuring bid and offer prices on the shares, determining the volumes required for buying and selling, and finding the balance of share price, which contributes to reducing the difference between requests and offers and encourages active trading.
