Dubai: ALEC Holdings, a major engineering and construction firm in the UAE, will list this month with Dubai planning to offer a 20 percent stake through the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD). The listing will put one billion shares on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), making it the first state-owned contractor to list.
Applications for the IPO will open on September 23 and end on September 30, with trading set to commence on October 15. Individual investors will be able to apply for 50 million shares representing five percent of the issue, with a minimum application size of Dh5,000 and a guaranteed allocation of 2,000 shares. Institutional and high-net-worth investors will hold 94 percent of the shares, with one percent allocated to ALEC employees. Two government funds, the Emirates Investment Authority and the Pensions and Social Security Fund of Local Military Personnel, have also been allocated five percent priority rights each.
ALEC's board of directors upon listing will be headed by Hussain Nasser Lootah and will include executive director Barry Roy Lewis. ICD will retain 80 percent of the shares, with a 180-day lock-up period. The offering advisers are Emirates NBD Capital, ADCB, and EFG Hermes as joint lead managers, Deloitte as auditor, and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Ibrahim N. Partners, and Linklaters as advisers.
The IPO is expected to diversify Dubai’s financial market by adding a key player from the construction sector. For investors, it represents a rare opportunity to gain exposure to a company behind some of the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s largest building, airport, and industrial projects.
