UAE’s IPO drought ends with a float priced below the pitch

The UAE’s first listing of the year has come in below every valuation estimate on the table. Dubai Investments set the range for its 20% float of the Dubai Investments Park landlord at AED 1.10-1.15 a share, valuing DIP Holding at AED 9.5-10 bn at listing, per the price range announcement (pdf). That is some 7-13% below the AED 10.8-11 bn management had previously put on the unit, by our math, and below the bottom of the AED 11-14 bn the banks were pitching last week.

Investors had been haggling, asking Dubai Investments to lower its expectations and sweeten the terms even after it committed to some AED 2.2 bn of dividends over three years, and pushing for a yield nearer Emaar’s 9% than the 5% an AED 14 bn valuation implied. The range puts the yield at 7.0-7.3% on the AED 700 mn 2026 payout, by our math. Orders covered the full offering within minutes of books opening, Bloomberg reports.

The retail tranche of Banque du Caire’s IPO closes today and was already 6.8x covered at market close yesterday, Al Borsa reports, citing preliminary data from the EGX’s OPR screens. Investors had placed orders for about 2.3 bn shares as of yesterday’s close, against about 343 mn shares on offer in the upsized retail tranche. The final offer price was EGP 5.30 per share; that’s roughly EGP 12.2 bn (USD 228 mn) in retail orders chasing just EGP 1.8 bn (USD 34 mn) worth of shares, according to our math based on the offering circular’s EGP 53.46 exchange rate.

Egypt’s state-owned Enppi is slated to IPO in the second half of January, although that target falls after the deadline on its temporary listing. The government wants to launch the petroleum engineering contractor’s USD-priced offering then, a government official tells our Egypt desk. The EGX listing committee gave it six months from its 28 June temporary listing to complete the offering, meet the final listing requirements, and register with the FRA — 28 December, by our count — although the FRA can extend on the company’s justifications and timeline.

The state will likely sell 10-20%, leaving EGPC, which holds 96.61%, with roughly 77-87%, by our math. The final stake is still being settled with advisors who have not been named, and the USD range comes once the fair value study, now accelerated, is done.

Why USD? Enppi was capitalized in USD, at USD 357.08 mn across 2.86 bn shares, as were Elab and Petroleum Marine Services. Most petroleum companies were founded with USD capital, which is why they sit among the EGX’s USD-denominated stocks, Assistant Prime Minister Hashem El Sayed said in June, and USD pricing lets foreign investors buy in without converting into EGP.

A Gulf listing would follow. The government plans to dual-list Enppi on a Gulf exchange once EGX trading starts, the official says. El Sayed said the three are expected to trade in USD with a Saudi Exchange listing possible, and “the Saudis are very interested,” EGX Chairman Omar Radwan told us in August.

Apollo is taking a minority stake in Mubadala Capital, with incoming shareholders committing a combined USD 5 bn at initial close. The US manager’s stake was close to 10%, CNBC reported ahead of the companies’ statement, and Apollo and the other new shareholders will put the USD 5 bn into Mubadala Capital’s investment strategies.

It’s a fee business now: Mubadala Capital was set up to run the sovereign investor’s own money and is being rebuilt as a global manager that raises third-party capital and charges for it. In July Mubadala handed it management of the USD 25 bn credit portfolio while keeping ownership of the assets, with a USD 4.65 bn commitment to expand the business — more to pitch to pension funds, insurers, and other institutions. Its core alternatives arm runs more than USD 60 bn across five strategies, and its wider operations manage, advise, or administer more than USD 755 bn.

Alpha Dhabi is committing USD 1 bn (AED 3.67 bn) to Alpha Wave Global’s next global fund. The ADX-listed IHC unit will put the money into Alpha Wave III, which invests globally in AI and high-growth tech, according to a disclosure to the bourse. It plans to fund the commitment from distributions out of the previous fund, Alpha Wave Ventures II, and from existing resources.

Dar Global has given its DIFC asset management unit a mandate to buy property across the GCC, Europe, the UK, and the US. The London-listed international arm of Saudi developer Dar Al Arkan is also sounding out a Dubai-only real estate fund through the unit, Dar Global Capital Partners, according to a statement. That fund has no disclosed size, timeline, or anchor investors.

The pipeline is bigger than home sales can carry. Dar Global earns when it sells homes, and revenue rose 66% to USD 258 mn in 1H 2026 against a pipeline that nearly doubled to USD 23 bn of gross development value. Fee income and outside capital spread the risk on the larger projects, which was the logic behind its purchase of a DIFC-licensed firm in August 2025. DGCP serves professional clients only, pitching sovereign funds, institutions, and the ultra-wealthy.

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