Abu Dhabi-based Alef Education Holding, an AI-powered learning solutions provider, plans to list 20 percent of the company’s issued share capital in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Abu Dhabi stock market, it said on Monday.
Alef Education is indirectly majority owned by Abu Dhabi Capital Group (ADCG), a private institutional investment group in the Middle East and North Africa.
As many as 1.4 billion shares, currently held by selling shareholders – Tech Nova Investment – Sole Proprietorship LLC and Kryptonite Investments LLC – will be made available in the offering.
Details of the offering
The price range will be announced on May 28. The subscription period for the first tranche — 8 percent of the offer — will run from May 28 to June 4. The first tranche comprises individual investors and companies.
The second tranche comprises professional investors. Their subscription period will begin on May 28 and end on June 5. This tranche has 92 percent of the offer shares earmarked.
The final price will be announced on June 5. Shares are likely to begin trading on the ADX on or around June 12.
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“Since its inception, Alef Education has played a pivotal role in advancing the UAE’s education landscape. It has delivered a significant, tangible, and positive impact for the students and education communities we serve. We take immense pride in our standing as a trusted partner of choice for both governments and education institutions, catering to their diverse and evolving education and learning requirements,” said Abdulhamid Mohammed Saeed Alahmadi, Chairman of Alef Education‘s Board of Directors.
“To date, our growth has been strongly supported by – and continues to benefit from – the UAE government’s focus on providing quality education to a broad student base, and increased fiscal spending allocated to education, totalling over 15 percent of the UAE federal budget in 2023. This remains true across and beyond the GCC, with the MENA region allocating an average of 4 percenr of GDP towards education spending in 2022,” said Geoffrey Alphonso, CEO of Alef Education.
Dividend policy
Alef Education plans to pay cash dividends twice each financial year. Therefore, the payment of the first-half results will be made in Q4 that year. Moreover, a second payment following second-half results will be made in Q2 of the following calendar year. The company expects to pay a minimum dividend payout ratio of 90 percent of the net profit generated for both financial years 2024 and 2025.
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