This year’s strong performance of Dubai IPOs further indicates that the Middle East is emerging as a capital market this year. Currency exchange firm Al Ansari Financial Services PJSC rose in its first trading day. Al Ansari’s stock once surged 20% before giving back some of its gains, closing up 17% at 1.2 dirhams ($0.33). The stock was priced at 1.03 dirhams per share, at the upper end of its IPO pricing range, with the company valued at approximately $2.1 billion. Al Ansari’s owners raised $210 million in Dubai’s first IPO of 2023. Amid recession fears, high inflation and central bank interest rate hikes that have dampened investor sentiment across the global IPO market, investor interest in IPOs in the Middle East has continued to grow. Recent IPOs in these oil-rich Middle Eastern countries have seen oversubscription, including the regional operator of KFC and Pizza Hut, and this year’s largest listed company Adnoc Gas. Al Ansari is one of the first family businesses to list on the bourse in the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part. Last year, driven by privatization efforts aimed at matching the IPO activity of neighboring Abu Dhabi and Riyadh in terms of trading volume, the city’s listings raised a total of $8.5 billion. Most of Dubai’s listed companies are state-owned enterprises. Group Chief Executive Officer Rashed Ali Al Ansari said: “This was a closed-door discussion involving many family members.” He noted that going public can help companies of a certain scale and size continue to expand, and the longevity of such large family businesses is important to the UAE. There are signs that a growing number of Middle Eastern private enterprises and family businesses are considering going public. Bloomberg reported last week that Emerging Markets Property Group, which operates classified websites popular with expatriates in the United Arab Emirates, is mulling an initial public offering. The Al Ansari IPO attracted total demand of over 12.7 billion dirhams, including a 200 million dirham commitment from cornerstone investor National Bonds Corp. Excluding the cornerstone portion, the IPO was oversubscribed by roughly 22 times. First Abu Dhabi Bank, EFG Hermes and Emirates NBD Capital managed the offering. © 2021 Meishun (Hong Kong) Management Consulting Co., Ltd. and Meishun (Hangzhou) Management Consulting Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Meishun Meiyin (Hangzhou) Consulting Management Co., Ltd. is a domestic subsidiary of Hong Kong Meishun Management Consulting Co., Ltd. under the same actual controller. Both companies are controlled by the same actual controller, managed under the same Chinese governance framework, and comply with the laws of Hong Kong and mainland China.