How soon will UAE’s private businesses sign up for an IPO?

How soon will UAE’s private businesses sign up for an IPO?

The 2023 UAE IPO season kicked off in style with three listings straight out of the blocks before the end of Q1. What’s interesting is that each one was structurally different: two government-backed issuers - ADNOC Gas and Presight AI - on ADX and one private issuer (Al Ansari) on DFM. Such diversity can only be good news for investors as there are different types of assets available for investors to diversify their portfolios. The key feature of the IPOs so far this year has been the strength of demand, especially from international institutional investors. ADNOC Gas, for example, drew in $124 billion, the strongest ever demand for a secondary offering in the MENA region (50 times oversubscribed in aggregate). International investor demand exceeded $25 billion, which is 10 times the total offering size. With an offering size of $2.5 billion and an equity value of $50 billion at listing, ADNOC Gas is the largest-ever IPO in Abu Dhabi - and the largest IPO globally to date this year. It remains to be seen whether it will still be the largest global IPO at the end of the year, but do not bet against it. The continued success of IPOs