ALBAWABA – The Dubai Taxi IPO, worth $315 million, sold out within one hour of opening, with the road authority selling 624.75 million shares, comprising a 25 percent stake in the company, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
The initial public offering (IPO) lists all of 624.75 million shares at AED1.8-1.85 per share, the company said Tuesday, noting that Dubai Taxi is valued at around $1.6 billion (AED4.62 billion).
Investors will be able to place orders until November 29, with the final offer price to be announced on November 30, according to Bloomberg. The shares are expected to start trading on December 7.
The Dubai Taxi IPO will be the first share sale by the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Dubai government in more than 12 months, having raised $8.3 billion by selling stakes in four state-owned companies.
The Dubai government sold various shares in the city’s main water and electricity utility, in 2022.
The Dubai Taxi IPO is the first state-owned shares listing in 2023 - Shutterstock
Dubai Taxi Co. is the city’s largest taxi operator by fleet, with a 44 percent market share, according to its website, as reported by Bloomberg.
The share sales are part of a plan unveiled about two years ago to list 10 state-owned companies to boost flagging trading volumes and match similar drives in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, Bloomberg reported.
So far, in 2023, there has been only one other IPO in Dubai, and it did not involve government stakes. The family-owned money exchange firm Al Ansari Financial Services PJSC raised $210 million in March in what was one of the first private firms to list in the UAE.
Two other companies are planning to go public in Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital.
PureHealth Holding PJSC, a health-care platform controlled by one of the Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds and its largest listed conglomerate, announced its IPO this week. Likewise, cryptocurrency mining hardware retailer Phoenix Group Plc last week took orders for its $371 million IPO.
