Page 209 - AAE PR REPORT - June 2024

billion in orders – a new record for the emirate. Another recent example includes the

November 2023 listing of Dubai Taxi Co., a unit of Dubai’s Roads and Transport
Authority, which raised $315 million and was 130 times oversubscribed, while Saudi
Arabia’s wider plans to privatise $55 billion in assets by 2025 reinforce the increasing
regional trend towards privatisation.”

The listing of family-owned companies is helping to drive business growth, succession
planning, and enhanced governance and transparency. Al Ansari Financial Services,
one of the UAE’s largest remittance and foreign currency exchange companies, owned
by a local family group raised $210 million from its 2023 IPO, while Spinney’s, which
was incorporated in DIFC to list its shares on DFM, thereby benefiting from its extensive

laws, regulations, and stability, listed in April 2024.

A third wave of IPOs is expected through FinTech and tech-enabled start-up exits,
helping to stimulate new industries with high-growth potential, while creating strong
demand from investors and viable exit options for VC investors.

Through increased IPO activity, banks, investment banks, brokerage firms, and law

firms within DIFC’s ecosystem also benefitted significantly from the privatisation of state
enterprises, with fees for Mena deals alone exceeding $1.2 billion and proceeds from
equity and equity-related deals exceeding $13 billion in 2023.

The Mena region is home to a vast range of potential investors. Notably, these include
family businesses and wealthy individuals represented by the influx of wealth from asset

management firms.

According to recent data, the UAE attracted a record-breaking number of High-Net-
Worth Individuals in 2022, which continued into 2023 and beyond. Currently, there are
an estimated 109,900 resident HNWIs, including 298 centi-millionaires and 20

billionaires, prompting DIFC’s estimated 370 asset managers to strengthen their
presence in the emirate.

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/markets/soes-fintechs-family-firms-spur-mena-ipo-
boom