Shares in UAE-based currency exchange company Al Ansari Financial Services climbed 17 percent above its listing price on its market debut after raising 773 million dirhams ($210.5 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) for 10 percent of the business.
The shares traded at 1.2 dirhams as the Dubai market opened on Thursday, against an IPO price near the top of the indicative range at 1.03 a share.
The company said it has appointed BHM Capital Financial Services as a liquidity provider for its shares on DFM.
Al Ansari is one of the first family-owned businesses to go public in the United Arab Emirates. Family businesses account for about 60 percent of the gross domestic product in the Gulf and employ about 80 percent of the workforce, KPMG said in a report in October.
UAE’s National Bonds Corp, owned by the sovereign wealth fund Investment Corporation of Dubai, committed 200 million dirhams as a cornerstone investor in the public share sale.
Read more: UAE’s Al Ansari raises AED773 mn in first IPO
Books were covered shortly after opening on March 16, according to a note to investors, despite a global market sell-off on concern over the financial health of Credit Suisse.
The Middle East has been a bright spot for stock market listings in 2022 and so far this year, with flotations from Oman oil driller Abraj Energy and Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC Gas.
There are at least eight more companies in line to list in the UAE capital alone, putting Abu Dhabi in first place in the Gulf’s IPO push.
Despite pressure on the global banking sector, rising inflation, and an aggressive rate hike cycle from central banks, Al Ansari says the exchange has hedged these risks in pricing its shares.
“We made sure that we priced it right, given the market conditions, and the pressures that international economies are going through. We were very concerned in the beginning when we saw the pressures when we saw the Fed increasing rates, we have to compete with that,” he said.
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