Burjeel Healthcare Holding Company (PLC) in Abu Dhabi has decided to offer 11 percent of its shares for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Abu Dhabi market (ADX), becoming the first privately owned company to go public in the UAE this year.
The company said in a statement on Monday that it plans to sell 550.7 million shares. The offering includes 350.3 million shares sold by VPS Healthcare Holdings, which owns 79.8 percent of Burjeel.
The price range has been set between 2 dirhams ($0.54) to 2.45 dirhams ($0.67) per share for the offer.
The subscription period for institutional and retail investors will open on September 30 and end on October 4. The company’s shares will start trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on the tenth of next month.
On September 19, the Abu Dhabi International Holding Company, the largest company in the UAE by market value ($178 billion), bought a 15% stake in Burjeel.
Burjeel Holding Company was established in 2007 and has a network of approximately 61 assets, including hospitals and medical centers, as well as pharmacies and other associated services across the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman.
The company plans to enter Saudi Arabia with planned investments of up to $1 billion in the largest economy in the Arab world through joint ventures and public-private partnerships.
Burjeel’s revenues were approximately 3.4 billion dirhams in the 2021 fiscal year, which represents 18% of the compound annual growth rate from 2019 to 2021.
Unlike capital markets in the US and Europe, which have slid into bearish territory, the UAE has seen a flurry of initial public offerings, with many government-owned companies listed.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, the second largest stock market in the Arab world, recorded a rise in liquidity and foreign investment in 2021 on the back of new listings, making it one of the best-performing stock metrics in the world in 2021.
