Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) is set to raise 22.32 billion dirhams ($6.1 billion) after pricing its initial public offering at the top of the range on Wednesday, in the Gulf's biggest IPO since Saudi Aramco's record deal in 2019, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.
DEWA will add to growing volume from 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.
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 fund 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 $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 capitalisation of $33.8 billion.
Demand for DEWA's IPO has been strong, prompting it to first raise the size of the institutional offer and then boosting the retail portion by almost three times on Saturday.
Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital and HSBC are joint global IPO coordinators, while Credit Suisse, EFG Hermes, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC and Goldman Sachs are joint bookrunners.
Emirates NBD and Moelis & Co acted as financial advisors.