Dubai: ‘Have not yet made final decision’ on IPO, says Al Ansari Exchange

Al Ansari Exchange, a major remittances and foreign exchange company in the UAE, is still in the early stage of launching an initial public offering (IPO) and no final decision has been made yet in this regard, its chief executive said.

Quoting people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that the family-owned company is considering an IPO and Dubai listing in the first quarter of next year.

“We have been discussing the idea of going public for some time. However, we are still in the early stages and have not yet made any final decision,” Rashed Al Ansari, CEO of Al Ansari Exchange, said in a statement to Khaleej Times.

It currently operates a wide network of over 220 branches and employs more than 3,500 multilingual staff, serving over 3.5 million consumers, and recording an average of 120,000 transactions each day.

The company is one of the leading exchange and money transfer businesses in the UAE, claiming 38 per cent market share in 2021.

The UAE has seen a flurry of IPOs in the last few quarters including some government-backed entities such as Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), Borouge plc, Tecom Group, Adnoc Drilling, Fertiglobe and Abu Dhabi Ports.

In the UAE, Dewa raised over $6 billion, becoming the biggest IPO in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 2019 and the largest IPO to date in the UAE. The order book was oversubscribed by 37 times. Borouge, the second-largest IPO during the first half of 2022, raised $2 billion with an aggregate oversubscription of almost 42 times. Tecom Group raised $454 million and saw an oversubscription level of more than 21 times.

Dubai aims to increase liquidity in the stock market and intends to list 10 public sector entities

According to the latest EY Mena IPO Eye report, the Mena region witnessed a 500 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of companies listing during the first half of 2022 with 24 IPOs raising proceeds of $13.5 billion – an increase of 2,952 per cent in value when compared to the same period in 2021.