Borouge, a chemicals joint venture between the United Arab Emirates’ main oil company and Borealis AG, surged in its trading debut after raising $2 billion in Abu Dhabi’s biggest listing.
The shares rose as much as 20 percent to 2.95 dirhams on Friday, valuing Borouge at just over 88 billion dirhams ($24 billion). The shares were priced at 2.45 dirhams each.
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The IPO attracted $83 billion of orders in the latest sign of strong demand for listings in the region. It drew interest from the likes of BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity, Bloomberg reported last week.
Seven cornerstone investors agreed to subscribe for $570 million worth of shares, including Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man.
Listings on Gulf stock exchanges are on track for their best-ever first half as high oil prices and broad economic reforms draw investors to the region.
IPOs in the Middle East have fetched $11.4 billion in the first five months of the year, already eclipsing the amount raised in any other first half, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
In addition to Borouge, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has sold stakes in two units over the last year – Adnoc Drilling and fertilizer firm Fertiglobe. Shares in the drilling unit have risen 41 percent since listing, while Fertiglobe’s stock has doubled.
Abu Dhabi-based Borouge makes specialty plastics for manufacturing and consumer goods. It has said it will pay $975 million in dividend for the financial year 2022, rising to at least $1.3 billion for 2023.
At the offer price, the projected dividend for next year implies a yield of 6.5 percent. That’s above the average of 2.7 percent for listed specialty chemical firms, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Citigroup Inc., First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, HSBC Holdings Plc and Morgan Stanley were the joint global coordinators for the IPO.
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