A Gulf Business report said initial public offerings are set to be revived in the Middle East and North Africa or MENA as conditions in the capital markets improve. Although the IPO market in the region has been quiet in the past few years, a series of expected debuts could re-invigorate it. The report cited Britain's Islamic lender Bank of London and the Middle East, which listed on Nasdaq Dubai in October. The said listing was the first in Dubai in over four years.
According to Ernst & Young, more IPOs are expected to come based on the activity which occurred in the first half, despite having only one IPO in MENA in the third quarter of 2013. In the first half of the year, total funds raised through IPOs in the region went up 52% to USD 2.1 billion. This compared with the USD 1.4 billion gathered in the same period in 2011. In the past five years, the amount raised in the first six months of 2013 was the highest, primarily because of the USD 1.3 billion IPO of Asiacell which was the Iraqi arm of Qatar telecommunications operator Ooredoo.
Ernst & Young MENA Head of Transaction Advisory Services Phil Gandier told Gulf Business, "We do see an uptake in the number of Gulf and London IPO announcements and expect the IPO activity to increase significantly in 2014 and 2015. This potentially could be a result of the successful launch of the Al Noor Hospital IPO and other Gulf listings announced recently."
Kuwait Telecom operator Zain's IPO of its Iraqi unit, which is set to raise over USD 1 billion, will be one of the bigger listings next year. According to the report, the initial public offerings in the region will mostly focus in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
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