Saeed Al Tayer, CEO of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, explained that the expected public offering of DEWA will take place before the next Ramadan, and that there is no intention to borrow from international markets.
According to Arab Net, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has invited a number of banks to arrange its expected public offering on the Dubai Financial Market, which may reach a company valuation of $25 billion.
Bloomberg reported that Dewa has appointed Moelis as an advisor for the public offering, which is expected to be the largest on the Dubai Financial Market.
The expected offering is part of a series of 10 initial public offerings for government and semi-government companies planned by the Dubai government, to keep pace with the Abu Dhabi and Riyadh stock exchanges, which have witnessed multiple listings in recent months.
According to its website, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority provides its services to the emirate's population of 3.4 million people, and it has electrical capacities of about 12.3 gigawatts, and its net profit in 2019 amounted to about 1.3 billion dollars.
The offering also comes amid a boom in the performance of Gulf stock exchanges, and a rush for new offerings, as the IPO of ADNOC Drilling collected $34 billion in requests from investors, for a $1.1 billion offering in September. ACWA Power International has also attracted $300 billion in orders to be placed in the $1.2 billion Tadawul market.
The stock market in Dubai rose by 20%, while the Abu Dhabi market rose by 60%, and the general index of the Saudi Stock Exchange added 35% to its value this year.
Dewa's offering revives the Dubai Stock Exchange, which has not seen any new offerings since 2017, except for one public offering, amid a series of write-downs.
