RIYADH: Dubai plans to sell shares in its Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), valuing the firm at more than $25 billion in a deal that could be the Emirate’s biggest listing, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
DEWA's IPO is likely to be the first of many as the government tries to revive a flagging local bourse, the people said, asking not to be identified.
Dubai will sell a stake in DEWA “in coming months", deputy ruler Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid said earlier on Tuesday. Shares will be listed “in stages” due to the utility’s size, he said.
The planned listing comes a day after Dubai said it would sell stakes in 10 firms as it plans for more public offerings targeting companies in the energy, retail and logistics sectors.
“We believe the exceptionally high quality of state owned enterprises in Dubai are a guarantee of success for the privatization program,” said Miguel Azevedo, head of investment banking for the Middle East and Africa at Citigroup Inc., which has worked on several of the Emirate’s IPOs.
DEWA caters to 3.4 million people in Dubai. It has assets worth up to 190 billion dirhams ($52 billion), including its subsidiaries and has reported net income of 4.9 billion dirhams in 2019, according to Bloomberg.
ACWA Power International piqued investor appetite for the region’s power and water providers, with its October IPO in Saudi Arabia. The company has surged 37 percent since it was listed last month, giving it a valuation of $15 billion.
