The debut of Abu Dhabi Ports on the UAE stock exchange resulted in a 15% increase in share price, following a successful $1.1 billion IPO.

• The Abu Dhabi Ports, now listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) as ADPORTS, manages 10 ports in the UAE, a terminal in Guinea, and various logistics and industrial zones.
• The UAE is currently undergoing a privatization push, with the latest listing being announced.
• In the past year, ADX has experienced an increase in new listings due to public offerings by Mubadala, an ADNOC state investor, and IHC. As a result, ADX was one of the top-performing regional markets last year.

On Tuesday, the shares of Abu Dhabi Ports Group increased by 15% per share after raising 4 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion) in an initial public offering (IPO), signaling the start of a series of highly anticipated listings in the United Arab Emirates this year.

The stock price was 3.68 dirhams ($1) after the 10:00 a.m. opening of the Abu Dhabi market, an increase from its initial asking price of 3.2 dirhams.

The Abu Dhabi Ports, now listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) as ADPORTS, operates 10 ports in the UAE, a terminal in Guinea, and several logistics and industrial zones. Its flagship Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi was the first deep-water and semi-automated container port in the GCC region.

The company will use the cash proceeds from this primary issuance to fund its growth plans, both organic and inorganic, thereby accelerating its expansion plans locally and internationally, as stated in its investor filing.

Abu Dhabi Ports is owned by ADQ, the UAE's third largest sovereign wealth fund, which will retain a 75.44% stake in the company after transferring a 22.32% stake in Aramex and a 10% stake in the National Marine Dredging Company to the company prior to the sale, as per filings.

IHC, an Abu Dhabi conglomerate, bought a 7.4 percent stake in Abu Dhabi Ports through its subsidiary company Al Seer Marine, spending a total of 1.2 billion dirhams ($326.74 million) on 375 million shares.

Listing spree

The UAE is currently undergoing a privatization push, with the latest listing being announced.

The number of new listings on the ADX has increased significantly in the past year, thanks to public offerings by ADNOC, Mubadala, and IHC. As a result, the ADX was one of the top-performing regional markets last year.

In October 2019, ADNOC Drilling raised $1.1 billion for its IPO, marking the emirate's largest ever listing. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has also experienced significant interest, with Tadawul Group's IPO raising over $1 billion. This follows the $1.2 billion float of ACWA Power International, which was the Kingdom's largest since the IPO of Aramco in 2019.

Despite renewed investor appetite across the Gulf region, capital markets in Dubai have lagged behind peers in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, due to poor liquidity and a series of high profile de-listings, including port operator DP World, Emaar Malls and Damac Properties.

In November, Dubai declared plans to boost the size of its stock markets to AED 3 trillion ($817 billion) by privatizing 10 state-owned companies, although no specific businesses or listing dates were specified.

TECOM, DEWA, Salik, Emirates Group businesses such as dnata and Skywards, and Dubai airport's Duty Free are among those being speculated as potential public offerings.

Since the announcement of potential new listings, Dubai's benchmark DFM Index has increased by over 11%.