Dubai: The Dubai district cooling company Empower has raised the issue size to 15 per cent from 10. The IPO, which opened for subscription on Monday (October 31), was met with immediate demand inflow, and which made it more or less a certainty that Empower would have to raise the issue size.
But the increase is not for retail investor and would apply only to those deemed as 'qualified'. The latter's tranche will increase from 900 million ordinary shares to 1.4 billion.
There is still a chance that Empower could still raise the issue size further. In the latest statement, the company says: "The selling shareholders reserve the right to amend the size of the offering tranches, as well as the size of the offering at any time prior to the end of the subscription period at their discretion, subject to obtaining SCA’s approval." (Incidentally, DEWA, which kickstarted the Dubai IPO revolution, also went in for two size increases.)
The stock is being offered in a range of Dh1.31-Dh1.33, and from the moment subscriptions opened, demand was overwhelming. "Rather than take longer to confirm the size hike, Empower did the right thing by saying so early into the subscription process," said an analyst, who was, however, expecting the increase to have been higher.
The new issue size implies raising Dh2.15 billion. In a statement, Empower said it straight: "The decision to increase the offering size was determined after strong investor demand and oversubscription."
DEWA and Emirates Power will own 59.5 per cent and 25.5 per cent of Empower’s existing share capital after the revised offer.
