Dubai Investments Park tests UAE appetite as Egypt’s listing slate runs ahead

Dubai Investments Park is the test of whether the UAE’s IPO market reopens. Executives start meeting investors this week on what would be the emirate’s first listing since the war, after a float already pushed back more than once. Egypt’s slate is further along, with Banque du Caire’s book opening yesterday with a prospectus that lets the state sell 45% rather than the 30% it filed, and Misr Life Ins. slipped to December to clear the way.

Dubai Investments Park is marketing what would be the UAE’s first listing since the war. Executives plan to meet investors from today until next Monday, 26 October, Bloomberg reports, citing people it says are familiar with the matter. Parent Dubai Investments has previously proposed floating a 24% stake in the unit, which runs a 2.3k-hectare mixed-use development of warehouses, hotels, schools, and other facilities.

It has been a long time coming. Dubai Investments reaffirmed plans to list this year after earlier delays, with management valuing the unit at AED 10.8-11 bn and putting occupancy at roughly 90%. Citi, Emirates NBD Capital, and HSBC are working on the offering, according to Bloomberg’s earlier reporting.

Banque du Caire opened subscriptions on a sale its banks want to make half again as big. The FRA cleared the prospectus (pdf), the regulator said in a statement (pdf). Institutions have until Friday, 23 October and the retail book runs to Wednesday, 28 October, with pricing on Monday, 26 October and an EGX debut expected in November, according to the ITF.

The range: BdC is guiding EGP 4.82-5.30 a share, putting the base 30% stake at EGP 22.1-24.2 bn (c. USD 413-452 mn) and the bank at EGP 73.5-80.8 bn (c. USD 1.37-1.51 bn), by our math. The prospectus lets Banque Misr offer another 2.29 bn shares depending on demand, taking the stake on offer to 45% and lifting proceeds by about half, to as much as EGP 36.4 bn.

The banks recommended going to 45% after the roadshows pulled in demand from investors around the world, a government official tells us, and the call rests with Banque Misr, BdC’s state-owned parent and the only seller, together with the Central Bank of Egypt. At the EGP 80-80.5 bn fair value reported in September, 45% is worth roughly EGP 36 bn against about EGP 24 bn for 30% — which matters because the government was looking for more than EGP 30 bn when that valuation surfaced.

REMEMBER- The offering is fully secondary — the 4.575 bn shares in the 30% plan are existing shares held by Banque Misr, so the proceeds go to the parent, and 45% means about 6.86 bn shares. The EBRD and IFC were reportedly eyeing a combined 10% in August, which last week’s ITF notice did not mention.

The 20% sale of Misr Life Ins. is now pencilled in for December, after the government pushed it back to make room for Banque du Caire, a senior government official tells our Egypt desk. The fair value study is the holdup, and appetite has held steady while it is being completed, the official says.

The date is tentative and depends on coordination between the Investment Ministry, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, and the offering’s advisors. The ministry has put its earlier EGP 12-14 bn proceeds target on hold until the valuation and price range are set. The latest roadshow in London and Dubai drew interest from international institutions and regional banks, and some are already lined up for the private placement, the official says, without naming them or saying how much they might put in.

Pickalbatros has closed USD 250 mn of sustainability-linked financing for its Morocco expansion, from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Attijariwafa Bank, in what adviser Zilla Capital calls the largest IFC-backed hospitality financing in Morocco’s history and the largest in the group’s, it said in a statement (pdf). The dual-currency package runs in three tranches and covers the recent acquisitions of the Sofitel Casablanca Tour Blanche and the Mövenpick Hotel Casablanca, upgrades at the Marrakech and Agadir hotels, and refinancing of existing debt over longer maturities.

The IFC’s own disclosure gives three different sizes. It lists an A-loan of up to USD 165 mn alongside USD 135 mn mobilized from B and parallel lenders, for USD 300 mn of debt against a USD 386 mn program, while describing the IFC’s own investment as “up to USD 200 mn.”

REMEMBER- Pickalbatros got approval in June for USD 200 mn of World Bank Group-backed financing for Morocco, putting the signed package USD 50 mn above what was flagged then. It pledged USD 140 mn for the country in 2023, hit seven hotels and 2.6k rooms by September 2024 after four acquisitions that year, and is at nine hotels and more than 2.7k rooms now, Zilla says. It has put more than USD 400 mn into Morocco, Asharq Business reports, citing founder and chairman Kamel Abou Aly.

The brokerage behind Netflix’s Selling Sunset has opened in Dubai with 20 brokers. The LA-based Oppenheim Group has launched its first Middle East operation, with a Bluewaters office due to open in December, the National reports. UAE lead Omar Abaza told the paper he still sees big potential in the market despite this year’s downturn.

It is arriving into a cooling market. Dubai residential sales fell 47% y-o-y to AED 72.6 bn in 3Q 2026 as buyers turned cautious over the Iran war, and sales of homes above AED 20 mn fell 32% y-o-y across July and August.

IN PERSPECTIVE- Prices have held up better than volumes, down some 5-15% between end-2025 and September. With about 20% more residential supply due over two years, S&P warns of a sharper decline if the regional disruption persists.

Turkey’s fund crisis has reached the corporate bond market. Investment funds hold a third of the TRY 1 tn corporate debt market, and with redemptions and defaults running they are selling their most liquid holdings — government bonds and stocks — which leaves them more concentrated in the corporate paper they cannot move, Bloomberg reports.

Who it hits: Weaker demand for corporate bonds falls hardest on small businesses, whose growth in Turkey rode on credit access from a 14-fold expansion of the corporate bond market over the past decade. Bigger names should still be able to tap it, analysts tell Bloomberg.

ALSO- MSCI has frozen its Turkey indexes until its next review in 2027, pending clear progress on reining in the funds industry, according to a statement. Until then it will not add stocks to the Turkey Investable Market Index, move companies up a size segment, or raise weightings. That review will also weigh demoting Turkey from Emerging Market to Frontier or Standalone.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING

Taiba Investments is winding up one of its hotel ventures. Its wholly owned Dur Hospitality holds 60% of Nuzul Shada Hotel Company, which Taiba has placed into voluntary liquidation, according to a Tadawul filing. Nuzul Shada carries share capital of SAR 40 mn. Taiba cast the move as portfolio housekeeping, part of a periodic review of its holdings.

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