UAE’s IHC plans health and IT business IPOs

UAE’s IHC plans health and IT business IPOs

ABU DHABI - International Holding Company plans to sell 20% of its technology unit in an initial public offering next year, its CEO told Reuters, adding that the UAE's IHC is aiming for a first quarter IPO of Pure Health to raise more than $1 billion.

IHC, which rose from relative obscurity to become the United Arab Emirates' largest publicly traded company worth more than $200 billion, has been on a consolidation and acquisition drive.

This has led to two IHC subsidiaries rounding out the three biggest companies on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

Asked about plans for International Technology Holding (ITH), Chief Executive Syed Basar Shueb said IHC will likely list 20% of it in the third quarter and is in talks with local firms about possible acquisitions by the group born out of IHC's IT sector holdings.

ITH was expected to turn over half a billion dirhams ($136 million) and have $1 billion in assets by the second quarter, Shueb said.

IHC is part of a business empire overseen by its chair, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is also the UAE's national security adviser and has been a foreign policy troubleshooter for his brother, President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

The firm,