Press Room

Drake & Scull IPO 'significantly oversubscribed' - Al Mal Capital Joint Lead Fund Manager
Posted on 21 Jul 2008

At a time when the Dubai Financial Market (DFM)is passing through a bearish phase, the Drake and Scull International's (DSI) initial public offering (IPO) has recorded "significant over-subscription", say sources. "The response has been extremely good," say bankers of the lead managers, without giving any figures on the level of investor subscription of the IPO.

"The level of investors' response has really been an achievement, considering the general market response at this point of time," the source added. Market sources put the level of over-subscription at 500-100 times as the lead managers are collating information from the various banks. Al Mal Capital and HSBC Middle East were the Joint Lead Managers for the IPO, which closed on July 17.

DSI is a UAE-based public joint stock company (PJSC), under incorporation and is one of the oldest and most experienced mechanical, electrical and plumbing contracting firms in the UAE. DSI offered 1.19 billion shares in the IPO, representing 55 percent of the company, Dh1 per share (plus an offering cost of Dh0.02 per share) to UAE and non-UAE individuals and institutional investors.

The minimum subscription was 20,000 shares. CEO Khaldoun Rashid Tabari had said at the time of the IPO opening that he was delighted with the response so far to it. "We will be the first MEP contracting company to list in the UAE and offer investors an opportunity to access this specialist area of the fast-growing construction industry."