The month of February saw 329 global IPO/follow-on equity offerings worth $30 billion, or nearly half the $50 billion and 348 deals seen a year earlier, data from Capital IQ shows.
While the pipeline for GCC’s IPO market remains muted in February, the month nevertheless marks the filing of UAE’s first IPO in 30 months. Insurance House’s IPO opens on Feb 27 following its announcement on Feb 5 to launch IPO in Abu Dhabi.
Insurance House is offering 55 per cent of its founding capital or Dh66 million to the general public for subscription. The company plans to raise $16 million from the initial public offering.
The subscription period is from February 27, 2011 to March 09, 2011. Minimum purchase requirement is 25,000 shares. The shares will be allotted on March 23, 2011. The subscription fee is Dh0.035 per share.
Once listed, the company intends to open up its shareholding to foreign ownership, to the extent of 20 per cent of the company’s paid up equity share capital.
The underwriters, led by Mashreqbank, are Finance House, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and National Bank of Fujairah.
The Abu Dhabi-headquartered finance company was established on March 13, 2004 and commenced its operations on July 18, 2004. The company is primarily involved in commercial and retail financing, financial services and investments. The major shareholders of Finance House include, The National Investor (TNI), a number of prominent UAE businessmen, high net worth individuals and dignitaries.
It is expected that Wataniya Takaful, a new Islamic insurance company being set up partly by National Bank of Abu Dhabi's Islamic finance unit, will also sell shares worth Dh82 million to the public this month or next month ahead of a listing on the Abu Dhabi stock market.
"We got approval and we're waiting for final regulatory approval, we got 90 per cent of that done," said Aref Al Khouri, managing director of Abu Dhabi National Islamic Finance, or ADNIF, NBAD's Islamic banking unit, told newswires.
Apart from the UAE, only Turkey registered some IPO activities in the Mena region.
RONESANS Real Estate Investment A.S plans to sell a nominal TRY 77,700,000 worth of shares in the offering, and provide an over-allotment option for a nominal TRY 11,655,000 worth of shares.
Pegasus Airlines and Kiler, the biggest local retailer in Turkey, also applied for listing on the ISE.
Meanwhile, the Asia Pacific region showed a heightened momentum in IPO and follow-on equity transactions with 132 announced/closed deals worth at least $5.4 billion, Capital IQ data shows.
The largest was the $1.25 billion follow-on equity offering by Hong Kong-headquartered Wharf Holdings, followed by another follow-on equity offering ($840 million) by Japan’s Shinsei Bank Ltd. The biggest in terms of IPO is the $400 million public offering by South Korea’s TK Chemical Corp.
North America and Canada showed a bounce in activities with 146 transactions, worth at least $16.7 billion, mostly follow-on equity offering. The two largest IPOs were issued by Cole Credit Office/Industrial Trust, Inc. ($2.9 billion), and American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust ($1.7 billion).
Europe, ended the month with 39 deals, worth at least $7 billion, led by Russia-based VTB Bank ($3.3 billion), Netherlands headquartered Aegon ($1.2 billion) and Belgium’s Nyrstar ($675 million).
Latin America recorded six deals, worth at least $400 million, led by the Home Loan Servicing Solutions ($316 million).
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