Massar Solutions IPO: Book closes on first Abu Dhabi float since 2011
The book closed yesterday on the float of Massar Solutions, a United Arab Emirates vehicle rental and fleet management firm listing 40 per cent of its shares on Abu Dhabi’s bourse.
The float, which is the first on the emirate’s stock market since Eshraq Properties listed in 2011, follows a strong year of Middle Eastern initial public offerings (IPO) activity. In 2014 there were 27 floats raising $9.6bn (£6.4bn), the highest level of IPO activity in the region since 2008, before the recession.
Middle Eastern IPOs accounted for 12.5 per cent of the total proceeds raised by EMEA IPO issuers last year, compared to 7.9 per cent in 2013 and just 5.3 per cent in 2012.
Massar Solutions aimed to sell 24m ordinary shares at 2.4 dirhams each before yesterday’s deadline. This would value the IPO at 576m dirhams (£104m).
The company said shares offered in the IPO would come equally from existing shareholders Invest AD, a local financial firm, and Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA), which held 51 per cent and 49 per cent of the share capital respectively.
The offer was only open to UAE nationals, with 20 per cent of the IPO reserved for retail investors and the rest available to them as well as to fully-owned UAE companies and government institutions.