2024 has been a quieter year for IPOs in MENA than the boom times of 2022; the UAE’s Alef Education raised the highest proceeds in the region in the second quarter of the year at $514 million.
The UAE has issued mandatory environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting guidelines for listed companies on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) or Dubai Financial Market (DFM).
As a result, a company may need to adjust its DEI policies and practices to meet regulations when preparing for an IPO.
For instance, each new company floating on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) or Dubai Financial Market (DFM) must meet the
2021 quota for one woman per listed company board, set by the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (UAE SCA) in 2021.
Some recent IPOs in the UAE include prominent entities such as:
- Parkin – Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) (2024)
- Spinneys (2024)
- Dubai Taxi Corporation – Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) (2023)
- Empower (2022)
- Salik – Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) (2022)
- Taaleem (2022).
The RTA IPOs are significant as they represent public offerings of Dubai government entities, setting a precedent for other public sector entities in the future.
[Find out more – Pathway20, Aurora50’s 12-week board accelerator for women | NOORA, Aurora50’s network for corporate women | The Inclusion Summit, where hundreds of DEI change-makers meet in UAE]
[Related: UAE IPOs 2023 | UAE IPOs 2022 | DEI – part of the ‘S’ and ‘G’ in ESG]
Other IPOs in MENA’s GCC region in 2024
- Saudi Arabia led the region’s IPO activity with 11 listings, including five on the Tadawul main market.
- Dr Soliman Abdul Kader Fakeeh Hospital raised the highest proceeds of $764 million.
- Kuwait saw its first IPO since 2019, with Beyout Investment Group (BIG) Holding raising $147 million on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.
2024 UAE IPOs
- Advanced Inhalation Rituals
- Agility Global
- Alef Education
- Alpha Data
- Etihad Airways
- LuLu Group
- Parkin Company
- Spinneys Dubai
Key
📈 Under $1 billion raised
📈📈 Over $1 billion raised
📈📈📈 Over $2 billion raised
[Download full list of UAE IPOs since 2022 – Excel]
AIR (Advanced Inhalation Rituals) (expected 2024)
AIR, the owner of shisha tobacco brand Al Fakher, chose banks to work on its IPO last year.
The IPO in the UAE is expected to raise $800 million sometime this year, according to Bloomberg.
Agility Global 📈📈📈
Agility Global, a unit of Kuwait’s logistics major Agility, began trading on ADX on 2 May.
Shares of the company settled 327 percent higher at AED1.58 each at the closing of trading in Abu Dhabi, giving Agility Global a market value of about AED16.46 billion ($4.48 billion).
The company recorded $3.9 billion in revenue last year. Its parent company is listed on the Dubai Financial Market and Boursa Kuwait.
Its stock opened at AED1.48 per share, up as much as 300 percent compared to the reference price of AED0.37 per share provided by the company.
As the operations and assets management unit of Agility, Agility Global’s portfolio includes services company Menzies Aviation, Tristar, a global fuel logistics business, as well as Agility’s global logistics parks business in Saudi Arabia, Africa and South Asia.
Other businesses include a remote site company GCC Services, a defence and government services logistics business and a digital logistics platform Shipa, according to its website.
Parent company Agility – which is listed both on the DFM and the Kuwait Stock Exchange – will remain the controlling shareholder, with a 51 percent stake in Agility Global.
Alef Education 📈
UAE-based education technology company Alef raised AED1.89 billion ($514 million) when it floated in mid-June on ADX.
Alef is indirectly majority owned by Abu Dhabi Capital Group, a private institutional investment company that has a multi-asset class portfolio across the MENA region.
The company provides artificial intelligence-powered learning and digital education resources to schools in the UAE, Jordan, Indonesia, Morocco and the US.
Its platform serves about 7,000 schools, with about 1.1 million registered students and 50,000 teachers.
Read full story about Alef Education on The National
Alpha Data (IPO end 2024?)
UAE IT services company Alpha Data is planning an IPO in Abu Dhabi, which may come as soon as the end of 2024, Bloomberg reports.
Alpha Data is seeking to raise $200 million from the listing, according to Bloomberg.
Founded in 1981, Alpha Data’s technologies encompass artificial intelligence, mobility, security, Internet of Things, big data and cloud computing.
Read full story about Alpha Data on Bloomberg (subscriber)
Etihad Airways (may float in 2024)
Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has returned to profit and is improving its transparency, governance and balance sheet to be ready for an IPO – should its sovereign wealth fund owner decide to list it, CEO Antonoaldo Neves said in May.
The UAE’s national carrier on Wednesday posted net profits for 2022 and 2023 after a run of losses since 2016.
Etihad is owned by Abu Dhabi wealth fund ADQ, which has listed several holdings since 2022.
It would be the first Gulf carrier to go public and has added banks to its planned IPO that could raise as much as $1 billion, Bloomberg reports.
[Read full story on Etihad Airways on Bloomberg (subscription)]
Lulu Group (expected 2024)
LuLu supermarket group plans to list on ADX in the second half of 2024.
LuLu, one of the largest supermarket chains in the Gulf, is founded by Indian-born businessman Yusuff Ali.
It operates 254 hypermarkets and shopping malls in 10 countries including India, Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The company aims to start 80 more hypermarkets in GCC and other countries in the next two years.
LuLu originally planned its IPO for 2023. It could raise as much as $2 billion.
Parkin Company 📈
In March, Parkin Company raised $429 million on DFM in the UAE’s first IPO of the year.
Parkin, owned by the Dubai Investment Fund, is the largest provider of paid parking in the UAE.
This is the third Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) asset to have listed after Salik and the Dubai Taxi Company (DTC).
Spinneys 📈
Spinneys Holdings 1961 – the franchisee of the supermarket chain in the UAE and Oman – floated on DFM in May 2024, raising AED 1.38 billion ($376 million).
Spinneys Dubai operates more than 65 stores across the UAE, and operates at least seven stores in Oman.
Albwardy, which says it has annual turnover above $1 billion, also owns the franchise rights to British supermarket chain Waitrose.
Founded in the mid-1970s, it has a hospitality portfolio that includes several Four Seasons hotels and food distribution investments that include Nestle UAE.
Other sectors in Albwardy’s portfolio are industrial and engineering, commercial and insurance, agribusiness and properties.
