Middle Eastern companies no longer have to go to London or New York in search of big-ticket investors, with the likes of BlackRock Inc. flocking to the initial public offering boom in local markets.
Dubai Electricity & Water Authority’s IPO raised $6.1 billion last month, with major global investors BlackRock, Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments buying into the deal, Bloomberg News reported. Fertiglobe plc’s Abu Dhabi listing in October drew investment from Singapore’s GIC Pte and U.S. hedge fund manager Jeff Ubben.
Some local firms are abandoning international listings altogether. A Dubai-based provider of waste-disposal services has ditched plans to go public in the U.S. through a blank-check merger in favor of a traditional IPO in either Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, Bloomberg News reported in April.
Read more: BNN Bloomberg
