Today's Edition
A.SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)
The Gulf Cooperation Council region is set to see another strong year of listing after raising $12.88 billion in 2024, the S&P Global said in its report on the outlook for 2025.
“The IPO boom will continue in 2025 as governments pursue privatisation programmes to bolster state revenues, diversify regional stock markets, and potentially increase their representation in emerging or frontier market equity indexes,” the S&P Global report said.
IPOs in GCC raised $12.88 billion in 2024, accounting for 10.5% of total global IPO fundraising, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. In comparison, GCC IPOs totaled $11.02 billion, or 9.1% of the global total, in 2023 and $23.54 billion, or 13% of the global total in 2022.
Overall, the GCC had a total of 52 IPOs in 2024. The Saudi Stock Exchange led the way with 40 IPOs, followed by the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange with four, Dubai Financial Market with three and Muscat Securities Market with two, according to Market Intelligence data.
Food delivery company Talabat completed the GCC's biggest IPO of 2024, selling 20% of its stock for $2.03 billion. OQ Exploration and Production (OQEP), a unit of Omani state oil company OQ, sold 25% of its shares for $1.99 billion. Abu Dhabi retailer Lulu Retail Holdings conducted the Gulf's third-largest IPO of 2024, raising $1.72 billion.
"There has been a robust delivery of Gulf IPOs this year, and I'd expect a similar amount to be raised next year also," said Tarek Fadlallah, CEO of Nomura Asset Management Middle East in Dubai, was quoted as saying by the S&P report.
“This storyline seems unchanged going into 2025," Fadlallah said. "It's sustainable because there's a strong pipeline of companies waiting to go public and because the quantum of money being raised is not staggeringly large — it's significant, but it's not overwhelming."
Debt Market
GCC debt capital offerings totalled $25.23 billion in 2024, up from $14.24 billion in 2023, the highest annual regional total since 2019, according to S&P Globa Market Intelligence data.
More broadly, Gulf bond and sukuk issuance in 2024 is projected at about $140 billion, a record total, said Abdul Kadir Hussain, head of fixed income at Arqaam Capital in Dubai. Of this, 35%- 40% was issued to refinance existing debt, 30%- 40% to help various governments meet budget shortfalls, and the remainder was issued by banks and corporations, Hussain was quoted as saying by the S&P report.
"The GCC is one of the few regions within emerging markets with high-quality issuers," Hussain said. "It has a relatively deep and big dollar bond market universe."
Equity issuance in the GCC also increased in 2024 in terms of the number of transactions and the total amount raised. There were 64 equity capital offerings in 2024, raising nearly $28 billion, versus 59 transactions with combined proceeds of $12.39 billion a year ago.
