Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have returned to work on the $451 million Abu Dhabi initial public offering of Investcorp Capital Plc, which was upsized by 12 per cent after strong investor demand.
The two Wall Street banks are now working as joint global coordinators and bookrunners, according to a statement on Thursday. The IPO was increased to offer 720 million shares from 643 million and is likely to price at Dh2.30, the top of the range, according to terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News.
Citigroup and Goldman dropped off the IPO when they couldn't get internal approval for its price stabilization mechanism, which has never been attempted before in a United Arab Emirates listing, Bloomberg News reported last month.
The size of the IPO was increased due to strong demand from international and regional institutional investors, the company said. Investcorp is now selling 398.5 million shares, while Investcorp Capital's portion of the offering remains unchanged at 321.5 million shares. The price range was revised upwards on Wednesday, and will be between Dh2.22 to Dh2.30.
Investcorp Capital is an investment vehicle set up by the Middle East's biggest alternative asset manager, Investcorp Holdings, and invests in private equity, real estate, credit and general partner positions in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
IVC Strategic Investment Co, a special purpose vehicle which includes about 160 investors from across the Gulf, some of whom are existing clients of Investcorp, agreed to buy about $250 million of the IPO as a cornerstone investor.
The final offer price will be announced on Friday and shares are expected to start trading on Nov. 17.
Emirates NBD PJSC, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC and HSBC Holdings Plc are also working as joint global coordinators on the IPO.
