22-05-2025
Dubai's first IPO of the year attracts US$15.2bn of demand: IFR
Dubai Residential REIT was 26 times covered on its Dh2.15bn (US$584m) IPO in a robust show of sentiment for the first DFM listing of the year.
Shares priced at the top of a Dh1.07–Dh1.10 range and the upsized offer of 1.95bn shares attracted Dh56bn of demand, or around US$15.2bn.
A book of more than 600 lines included multiple anchor orders.
A banker involved said 20%–30% of demand came from outside the UAE, mostly Saudi Arabia, the UK and Europe.
A second banker involved said within this category, non-GCC accounts had been scaled back to less than 10% of the deal.
The top 10 took 40% and the top 20 took 55%.
Pricing values the company at Dh14.3bn and represents a dividend yield of 7.7% for 2025.
The offer was upsized to 15% of the company from 12.5%.
The listing is the first in the UAE since the break for Eid al-Fitr at the end of March that was followed by wider volatility following US president Donald Trump's tariff announcements on April 2.
'This has opened up a lot of REIT conversations,' said the first banker. 'Given the nature of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, there is a huge real estate market, so we will see more REITs. This year started off muted then on top of that we had the tariff discussions, so this is fantastic. I've had a few calls in the last few days about restarting conversations for situations before Q1 next year.'
Shares begin trading on May 28.
XCube is stabilisation manager for 243.8m shares in a brownshoe.
Citigroup, Emirates NBD and Citigroup were joint global coordinators, and joint bookrunners with Abu Dhabi Bank, Arqaam Capital and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
