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ABU DHABI / WAM
Al Ansari Financial Services on Friday announced that following the approval from the Securities and Exchange Authority (SCA), Al Ansari Holding LLC (selling shareholder) has exercised its right to increase the number of shares offering in the UAE retail offer of the group’s initial public offering to 56,250,000 ordinary shares from 37,500,000 ordinary shares.
In a statement, the company said that the increase is in response to very strong demand from retail investors and elevated oversubscription of the UAE retail offer.
A total of 750,000,000 shares, equivalent to 10 percent of the group’s issued share capital, are on offer. Subsequently, given the decision by the selling shareholder to increase the allotment to the retail investor tranche, the qualified investor tranche will be allotted 693,750,000 ordinary shares, instead of 712,500,000 ordinary shares.
Based on the previously announced price range of AED1.00 to AED1.03 per share, the size of the retail tranche will now be between AED56.3 million and AED57.9 million, representing a total of 7.5 percent of the IPO size.
All the shares are existing shares, with Al Ansari Holding selling 10 percent of its ownership in the group. The group will not receive any proceeds from the global offering. Following the global offering, the selling shareholder will continue to hold a stake of 90 percent.
The IPO subscription period remains unchanged. The UAE retail offer closed on March 23, and the qualified investor offer was expected to close on Friday.
The final offer price will be determined through a book-building process upon the close of the qualified investor offer and is expected to be announced on or around March 27, 2023.
The completion of the offering and admission is currently expected to take place on April 06, 2023, subject to market conditions and obtaining relevant regulatory approvals in the UAE, including approval of admission to listing and trading on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).