Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Mena to host first IPO summit with listings in high demand

Experts from companies that have listed will share their thoughts at Dubai's Museum of the Future Supplied
Experts from companies that have listed will share their thoughts at Dubai's Museum of the Future

The Middle East’s first IPO-focused summit will take place in Dubai later this month after recent listings in the emirate proved a huge draw for international investors.

Dubai Financial Market and the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) have partnered to host the Mena IPO Summit – Dubai, which aims to unite the entire IPO value chain.

The inaugural summit, at the Museum of the Future on January 23-25, follows record IPO activity in 2022 during which large-scale listings have been a mainstay of the regional business landscape, with further momentum expected in 2023.

Meeza, the IT services provider part-owned by Qatar’s state telecommunications company Ooredoo, said on Monday it will begin a book-building process this month with the goal of raising up to $250 million from an IPO on the Qatar stock exchange. 

The process will allow the company to offer between 30-50 percent with the final price per share to be determined on January 26. 

Meeza said it will be the first company to follow new regulations for book-building that were introduced in February 2021 as part of Qatar’s strategy to attract more foreign investors. 

In Dubai, five government-related and private sector issuers including Dewa, Tecom, Salik, Empower and Taaleem, recently raised more than $8.4 billion while their IPOs witnessed oversubscriptions drawing $183 billion.

“Dubai capital markets are witnessing robust IPO and listing activities supported by the strong fundamentals of Dubai’s economy as well as the successful implementation of Dubai’s strategy to develop its financial market in a number of areas,” Helal Al Marri, director general of the Department of Economy and Tourism in Dubai, said.

“The new markets’ ecosystem and its regulatory enhancements have created an attractive environment for various types of businesses to go public.”

Hamed Ali, CEO of DFM and Nasdaq Dubai, added: “With the increased momentum in Dubai capital markets in terms of listings and investors’ engagement, we are delighted to launch the Mena IPO Summit – Dubai as an important catalyst to exploring market opportunities in collaboration with capital market and IPO experts.”

Those set to share their insight at the summit include Dr Maryam Buti Al Suwaidi, CEO Securities and Commodities Authority; Mohammad Al Bastaki, CEO, Emirates NBD Capital; Fadi Ghandour, managing partner, Wamda Capital; Thomas Varghese, CFO, Dewa; Abdulla Belhoul, CEO, Tecom Group; and Miguel Azevedo, head of investment banking, Middle East and Africa at Citi.

The Mena IPO market continued to show significant growth last year while the global landscape remained subdued.

According to the latest EY Mena IPO Eye report, the region witnessed a 288 percent year-on-year increase in the number of companies listing between January and September, raising $14.7 billion in total – up 550 percent on the same period last year.

Brad Watson, EY Mena strategy and transactions leader, said the region continues to “forge its own path” with a steady stream of new listings, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with Kuwait, Oman and Qatar also seeing increased activity.

In 2021, deputy ruler Sheikh Maktoum Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that 10 state-linked firms would list on the Dubai Financial Market, part of efforts to lift the bourse’s market capitalisation to $817 billion.

Latest articles

Saudi ride-hailing female with phone

Saudi ride-hailing enjoys prosperous summer

A busy summer for drivers has brought a 41 percent increase from the second quarter to the third in the number of trips facilitated through ride-hailing apps in Saudi Arabia. In the first nine months of the year more than 51.8 million ride-hailing trips were taken, an increase of 12 percent over last year, statistics […]

The opening of the new Terminal A at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport last November has allowed Etihad to expand its flight options

Etihad profit soars on passenger and cargo volumes

Etihad Airways has reported a 66 percent increase in nine-month profit built on higher passenger and cargo revenue.  The Abu Dhabi carrier said profit after tax for the period reached $381 million (AED1.4 billion), up from $222 million a year earlier.  Total revenue was up 21 percent to $5 billion, which the airline said was […]

The Saudi Telecom share sale will take place pre-trading on Thursday through off-market negotiated deals

PIF’s $1bn Saudi Telecom sale could be sign of things to come

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has offloaded a $1 billion stake in the kingdom’s former telecoms monopoly in a deal that could mark the start of further equity sales as government entities seek to raise money for infrastructure spending. In October, the International Monetary Fund lowered its GDP growth prediction for Saudi Arabia this year […]

Emirates pandemic loan

Emirates to pay back $4bn pandemic loan by end of year

Dubai’s Emirates airline is on course to pay back the billions of dollars of state assistance it received during the pandemic by the end of this year. The emirate’s flagship carrier received AED15 billion ($4.1 billion) in equity payments from the government-backed Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) over the course of the pandemic, when the […]