After inviting banks to pitch for a role on an initial public offering of Dubai’s main utility, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, valuing the utility at approximately $25 billion, a source has told Bloomberg that Dubai is planning to list the company by April.
DEWA’s share offering will most likely be Dubai’s biggest initial public offering since DP World in 2007.
Dubai Electricity & Water Authority Chief Executive Officer Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer said to the journal: “I think we’ll be ready before Ramadan,” when asked about the timing of the proposed IPO. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan is expected to start in April.
The public infrastructure service company, founded in 1992, serves Dubai’s 3.4 million inhabitants with 12.3 gigawatts of power capacity last year. In 2019, DEWA reported a net income of $1.3 billion.
The company, owned by the Dubai government, has already chosen Moelis as an adviser and will probably pick a mix of international and local banks, sources close to the company have said.
This month, Dubai made known its plan to list around 10 state-owned firms on its stock market. According to various sources, DEWA and Salik will be two of these companies to go public. However, the other eight companies have not yet been revealed.
The plan to list DEWA and other companies on its stock market is part of Dubai’s plan to revive trading on its bourse that has left the city in the shadows of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
