Dubai: UAE-based Al Habtoor Group said on Sunday it does not “anticipate taking the company public in the foreseeable future,” even as it has been considering for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for a number of years.
“We continually review our options with regards to our future strategy. We have been considering an IPO for a number of years, and this situation remains unchanged,” Noura Badawi, a spokeswoman at Al Habtoor said in an emailed statement, adding “we constantly update our records, as part of this ongoing process.”
However, in an interview to Bloomberg TV, Mohammad Al Habtoor, the company’s vice-chairman and chief executive officer, said they are closer to an IPO. The company, which has been trying to list on the primary market since 2000, is planning to make more acquisitions as it prepares to expand its hospitality portfolio.
In February, the group acquired the Hilton London Wembley hotel, joining five other hotels in the group’s international property portfolio.
The group has two Hilton-branded hotels in Lebanon, one in the United States (President Abraham Lincoln Springfield — a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel) and two five-star hotels in Hungary.
In December 2015, Al Habtoor Group said it had allocated Dh2 billion for overseas investments this year.
Dubai expects to attract 20 million visitors per year by 2020. To reach its target, visitor numbers will need to grow by 7-9 per cent annually.
The emirate welcomed over 14.2 million overnight visitors in 2015, up 7.5 per cent over 2014, according to the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
