Al Ansari to float 10% stake on Dubai stock market

Al Ansari

• Net profits were up 21% to $162 million last year
• Exchange house employs over 3,500 people in 231 branches
• Businesses in Kuwait and Oman being acquired

Al Ansari Financial Services has revealed plans to float 10 percent of the company on the Dubai Financial Market.

The exchange house is making 750 million shares available through the initial public offering, each valued at one fil, with the subscription period running from March 16 to 24.

The listing is scheduled to go live on DFM on or around April 6, according to a statement from the company.

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Chairman Mohammad Ali Al Ansari said the listing will “offer investors a unique investment opportunity with significant exposure to a region that is expected to witness robust growth in the mid-term”.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, EFG Hermes UAE and Emirates NBD Capital have been named as joint global coordinators for the IPO.

Al Ansari operates in the UAE under a commercial license issued by the Department of Economic Development, Abu Dhabi. It is also licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority and is governed by the rules and regulation of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Dubai Financial Market to conduct the business of brokerage in securities.

The company, which specialises in remittances and foreign exchange, posted net profits of AED595 million ($162 million) for 2022, up 21 percent on the previous year.

Al Ansari’s foreign exchange business started as an offshoot of a trading business of the Al Ansari family almost 60 years ago, opening its first branch in Abu Dhabi in 1966. 

It has since grown to a network of 231 branches, employing more than 3,500 people, and catering to over 3 million customers.

The company is in the process of acquiring Al Ansari Exchange Kuwait, which has recently taken ownership of Oman Exchange Company, with the deal expected to be completed after the IPO.

“According to management, upon completion, this acquisition is expected to create the fourth largest player in the Kuwait market with a 7.7 percent market share in terms of number of physical branches,” the statement from the company said.

Rashed Ali Al Ansari, the firm’s group CEO, said: “We have a well-defined growth strategy that we expect to enable us to further increase our market leadership at home and to grow our presence in other markets.”

The company is targeting a minimum dividend payout of AED600 million for its 2023 earnings, with the first half of the payment due in October 2023 and the second half in April next year.

“A minimum dividend payout ratio of at least 70 percent of the net profit generated is expected,” the statement said.

The Emirates Investment Authority, the UAE’s only federal sovereign wealth fund, has the right to subscribe to up to 5 percent of the offering, it added.

Companies from the Middle East raised some $21.9 billion through IPOs in 2022, more than half the total for the wider Emea region, which also includes Europe and Africa, according to Dealogic data.

That momentum has continued into 2023. At the start of March, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) raised $2.5 billion from the IPO of its gas business, recording the largest ever listing on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

Earlier this week, analytics firm Presight, part of Abu Dhabi’s artificial intelligence outfit G42, announced plans to float on the ADX.