Shares of Al Ansari Financial Services, a UAE-based exchange firm, jumped 19 percent above its listing price in its first market offering after it raised $210.5 million in an initial public offering of 10 percent of its shares.
Shares were trading at 1.22 dirhams as the Dubai market opened today, Thursday, against an initial public offering price close to the top of the indicative price range at 1.03 per share.
Al Ansari is one of the first family businesses to go public in the UAE.
KPMG said in a report in October that family businesses account for about 60 percent of gross domestic product in the Gulf and employ about 80 percent of the workforce.
The UAE National Bonds Company, owned by Dubai's sovereign wealth fund, pledged 200 million dirhams as an anchor investor in Ansari's IPO.
