Dubai’s main power and water company (DEWA) announced on Wednesday that it had increased the number of shares offered in its initial public offering from 3,250,000,000 ordinary shares to 8,500,000,000 ordinary shares, setting it up to be the largest listing in Europe and the Middle East in more than two years.
The new offer represents a 17% stake and it could raise as much as 21 billion dirhams ($5.7 billion) if the shares are priced at the top end.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has also received approval from the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority SCA to increase the size of the tranche reserved for qualified investors (which includes the new Strategic Investors) from 5.9% (representing up to 2,925,000,000 shares) to up to 16.4% of the company's share capital (representing up to 8,175,000,000 shares).
Excluding the New Strategic Investors, who are locked up for between 180 and 365 days, the deal (including previously announced cornerstones) increases from 6.5% to 10% of the company's share capital. The size of the retail and employee tranches will remain the same.
The new offering size was determined by the Government of Dubai as the selling shareholder, following the authority's decision to set the offer price range per share between Dh2.25 and Dh2.48 per ordinary share on March 24.
The subscription period for the DEWA IPO didn't change and will close on April 2 for UAE retail investors and on April 5 for qualified domestic and international institutional investors.
DEWA is expected to list on the Dubai Financial Market on or around April 12.
