Dubai: Abu Dhabi's main energy company ADNOC will sell a 15 per cent stake in its logistics and shipping unit in an IPO, kicking off the second listing of one of its businesses this year.
ADNOC will offer about 1.11 billion shares in Adnoc Logistics & Services, it said in a statement. The company will announce the price range and start taking investor orders on May 16, with final pricing slated for May 25. Shares in ADNOC Logistics are expected to begin trading June 1, according to the statement.
The share sale comes just a few months after it raised $2.5 billion in the listing of its gas business, currently the world's second-biggest IPO of the year.
The Gulf has remained a relatively busy IPO market amid a global slump. Still, oil prices have come off their highs reached last year, and fears of a recession and bank failures in the US have recently put pressure on the commodity, which strongly influences Gulf stock markets.
More subdued IPO activity
About $3.5 billion has been raised so far in 2023 through listings in the Middle East - the bulk of it in Abu Dhabi, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That's down sharply from the $11.4 billion fetched by this time last year, as markets like Saudi Arabia have remained quiet and there haven't been any privatizations in Dubai.
The company has been expanding its fleet to cope with increased demand from growth in the state-owned firm's upstream and downstream businesses. It recently signed a five-year contract with ADNOC Offshore to provide integrated logistics services including port services and warehouse operations.
First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, EFG Hermes UAE LLC and HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd. are joint lead managers for the IPO.
