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Lulu off to a muted start on the ADX: Lulu Group’s retail arm, Lulu Retail, saw its shares fall 2.5% on their first day of trading on ADX, opening at AED 1.99, down from the final set price of AED 2.04. Lulu’s shares returned to the IPO listing price at market close, with nearly 248 mn shares traded.
The underwhelming market debut follows a record IPO, which marked the UAE’s biggest this year — raising AED 6.3 bn. The order book was 25x oversubscribed, excluding AED 1 bn in orders from cornerstone investors.
REFRESHER- The retail portion of the offering attracted over 82k retail investors, breaking the record for a UAE IPO over the past 10 years. For the institutional portion, Gulf sovereign wealth funds — including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Hassana, Qatar Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority — also invested in the IPO, alongside global investors Vanguard Group and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
What’s next? Lulu Retail plans to continue to invest in growth, aiming to “further enhance and grow our store network and customer base across the region,” CEO Saifee Rupawala said in a statement (pdf). The company plans to open 90 new stores across the Gulf over the next five years, focusing on the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Rupawala told Bloomberg earlier.
Lulu’s not alone: ADNH Catering also had a muted start on the ADX, briefly rising 0.1% before settling back to its listing price of AED 0.96 within 30 minutes of trading, while Abu Dhabi-based edtech firm Alef Education saw its shares fall 18% on its first day of trading.
And it’s not just the ADX: Other GCC IPOs are having similar debuts despite being oversubscribed. Oman’s OQ Exploration & Production fell 8% in its debut on the Muscat Stock Exchange two weeks ago, after raising a record USD 2 bn.
ADVISORS- Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital and HSBC Holdings are acting as joint coordinators and bookrunners, while Alrajhi Capital, EFG Hermes UAE, First Abu Dhabi Bank, and Goldman Sachs have been tapped as bookrunners. ADCB, Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC Holdings, and EFG Hermes UAE are also joint lead managers, while FAB and ADCB are joint lead receiving banks, along with our friends at Mashreq, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank, and Emirates NBD, who are acting as receiving banks. Moelis & Co. is also acting as an independent financial advisor.
Lulu appointed BHM Capital as liquidity provider for its listed shares on ADX, according to a bourse disclosure (pdf).
The story got ink in Bloomberg.
