Page 107 - AAE PR REPORT - April 2024

4/24/24, 9:33 AM Spinneys’ $375 Million Dubai IPO Draws Franklin Templeton - BNN Bloomberg

Emirates International Investment Company LLC and two subsidiaries of Franklin
Templeton will be cornerstone investors in the IPO, agreeing to subscribe for a total of
275 million dirhams.

Middle Eastern listings have attracted a smattering of interest from international
investors in the past. BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments bought
into Dubai Electricity & Water Authority’s 2022 IPO, while Fertiglobe plc’s Abu Dhabi
listing the prior year drew Singapore’s GIC Pte and U.S. hedge fund manager Jeff
Ubben.

Read More: BlackRock to Vanguard, Global Funds Rush to Middle East IPO Boom

Spinneys is among the first batch of family-owned businesses to go public in the United
Arab Emirates. State-owned companies have dominated listing activity in the past few
years as governments seek to fund the diversification of their economies away from

fossil fuels.

Last year, money exchange firm Al Ansari Financial Services PJSC listed in Dubai in
one of the first IPOs by a private company in the Gulf country, while investment vehicle
Investcorp Capital Plc followed in Abu Dhabi in November.

The listing will test investor appetite for privately-owned companies seeking to grow
their businesses. Spinneys plans to maintain a dividend payout ratio of 70% of annual
distributable profits after tax for fiscal 2024 and the following years. The company
reported a profit of 254 million dirhams in 2023, up 19% from the prior year.

Owned by the Al Bwardy family, Spinneys opened its first store in 1961 and now
operates 75 supermarkets under the Spinneys, Waitrose and Al Fair brands in the UAE

and Oman. It plans to expand into Saudi Arabia and set up four stores by the end of the
year, its chief executive officer said last week.

The grocery chain is counting on the UAE’s increasingly affluent population as well as
its Saudi expansion for growth opportunities.

Emirates NBD Capital, Bank of America Corp., and HSBC Holdings Plc are joint global
coordinators for Spinneys’ IPO, while Rothschild & Co. is the independent financial
adviser.

--With assistance from Kateryna Kadabashy.

(Updates with cornerstone investors in third paragraph)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

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