Dubai, UAE -The UAE and Saudi Arabia will lead the Initial Public Offering (IPO) markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2023, according to EFG Hermes Holding, a leading investment bank franchise in Frontier Emerging Markets (FEM).
‘’The IPO markets in MENA have seen strong momentum last year led by GCC countries, especially UAE and Saudi Arabia,” the Group Chief Executive Officer of EFG Hermes Holding Karim Awad said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 17th EFG Hermes One-on-One Conference in the UAE capital.
The conference was attended by senior government officials, high-profile regional business leaders, investors, and listed companies.
He said that his group is working on five diverse sectoral IPOs in the GCC market which will be launched between the second and fourth quarters of the year.
“The conference continues to act as a growth catalyst for capital market investment across FEM, opening direct communication channels between investors and the most promising listed companies,” Karim Awad, Group Chief Executive Officer of EFG Hermes Holding, said. “Leveraging decades of on-the-ground expertise in these markets, we provide investors with the tools, unique insights, and unfettered access they need to maximise returns — maintaining our position as a financial enabler of corporate success.”
In January this year, speaking at the MENA IPO Summit in Dubai, the deputy CEO of the Securities and Commodities Authority, Mohammed Khalifa Al Hadari, said the UAE will lead IPOs worth more than 8 billion dirhams ($2.2 billion) in the pipeline.
The UAE’s IPO pipeline was very strong last year with a number of public and private sector entities listing on the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges.
Dubai entities that went for IPO last year included Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, which raised 22.3 billion dirhams, the UAE’s and Europe, Middle East and Africa’s largest-ever IPO.