Dubai, UAE — Al Ansari Financial Services Friday announced that it has increased the number of shares in the retail tranche of its ongoing initial public offering (IPO), Dubai’s first this year, due to a strong demand from investors.
In a statement, the UAE-based exchange house said the number of ordinary shares has been increased from 37.50 million to 56.25 million. But the total size of the IPO— 750 million shares, equivalent to 10 percent of the Group’s issued share capital—remains unchanged.
The qualified investor tranche will now be allotted 693, 750,000 shares instead of 712, 500, 000. Based on the previously announced price range of AED 1.00 to AED 1.03 per share, the size of the retail tranche will now be between AED56.3 million and AED57.9 million, representing a total of 7.5 percent of the IPO size, the statement said.
The IPO subscription period remains unchanged. While the retail offer closed Thursday, the investor offer will close today, with final offer price expected to be determined by 27 Mar.
The company expects to list and start trading on the Dubai Financial Market in April.
Al Ansari will be one of the first IPO by a family-owned business in the UAE, where the majority of the listing firms have been state-owned.
Established nearly 60 years ago, Al Ansari Exchange has over 200 branches in the UAE and also offers services for paying domestic workers and savings schemes.
Al Ansari IPO follows the UAE’s first and world’s biggest in 2023, ADNOC Gas’ 2.5 billion dollar offering recently. On 6 March 2023, Presight, which is owned by G24, announced its intention to list on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
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).
UAE, Saudi Arabia to lead IPO MENA markets: EFG Hermes
‘’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 recently on the sidelines of the 17th EFG Hermes One-on-One Conference in the UAE capital.