Dubai’s TECOM raises $463m from IPO

• Business park operator set offering price at 2.67 dirhams
• Institutional and retail options were both heavily oversubscribed

Dubai business park operator TECOM Group said today it had raised 1.7 billion dirhams ($463 million) from investors via its initial public offering.

The company, which is owned by the investment vehicle of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced on June 8 that it would sell a 12.5 percent stake by offering 625 million ordinary shares in its IPO.

TECOM set the final offering price at 2.67 dirhams a share, it said. The shares are expected to list on or around July 5.

“As a result of the extremely strong demand, the final offer price was set at the top of the price range and the company has raised 1.7 billion dirhams through the IPO,” the company said.

Institutional and retail tranches were both heavily oversubscribed, with total gross demand exceeding 35 billion dirhams, it said.

Dubai’s deputy ruler, Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed, announced plans last November to take 10 government-linked companies public to boost stock market activity.

In April, it listed power utility DEWA in a $6.1 billion deal that was the region’s largest since Saudi Aramco’s record IPO of $29.4 billion.

In recent years Dubai’s stock market has lagged behind peers in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia after a series of high-profile state listings on those exchanges.

Gulf issuers have raised $11.3 billion from IPOs so far this year, Refinitiv data shows, exceeding European flotations even as global markets remain volatile because of the conflict in Ukraine.