Shares of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority surged almost 23 per cent as the utility company made its debut on the Dubai Financial Market on Tuesday.
Dewa was trading 17 per cent higher at Dh2.90 at 10.14am UAE time on Tuesday after the stock rose as high as Dh3.05 per share. The company has market value of about $39 billion and is the largest on the exchange..
The listing of the Dubai utility is the biggest in Europe and the Middle East since Saudi Aramco’s debut in 2019. Dewa raised Dh22.41bn ($6.1bn) from its initial public offering earlier this month.
A total of nine billion ordinary shares, representing 18 per cent of Dewa’s issued share capital, were offered at Dh2.48 a share. This includes commitments from cornerstone and strategic investors amounting to approximately Dh13.8bn.
The offering garnered strong interest from local and international investors and was 37 times oversubscribed (excluding cornerstone and strategic investors) with total demand amounting to Dh315bn, Dewa said in a statement an April 6 statement.
The company increased the size of its listing twice this year, from 3.25 billion to 8.5 billion, and finally to nine billion shares, due to robust demand.
Dewa has outweighed Emirates NBD, Dubai's largest bank, which before its listing had 23.63 per cent weight on DFM General Index with a market capitalisation of Dh92.85bn.
On Tuesday, Dewa said its 2021 profit surged almost 75 per cent to about Dh7bn as demand for electricity rose in the emirate and economy continues to recover strongly from the pandemic driven slowdown.
“The year 2021 witnessed strong demand growth for electricity of over 10 per cent, which is reflected in our excellent performance,” Dewa said in a statement to the DFM. “We view this as return to normal situation in Dubai after Covid.”
Dubai's population is expected to grow to 5.8 million by 2040, from 3.5 million currently and energy demand last year was nearly triple the company's estimates.
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