Emaar and Knauf push to take their units private as controlling shareholders buy out minority owners

Two controlling shareholders are buying out the last of their minorities today. Emaar Properties has opened its offer for the fifth of Emaar Development still in public hands, and will compulsorily acquire the remainder once it holds 90% plus one share. Knauf is already at 99.3% of United Mining and is asking the Saudi regulator to approve a mandatory offer for the final 0.7%. Both end with the company converted to private status and taken off its exchange.

Emaar Properties plans to take Emaar Development private and off the DFM if it can acquire roughly half of the shares held by the developer’s minority shareholders. Emaar Properties’ board gave final sign-off last week to its AED 15-a-share cash offer, which values the developer at AED 60 bn, to acquire the remaining c. 20% stake in the firm it doesn’t already own, according to a DFM filing (pdf). The filing sets out the endgame for the first time: once Emaar holds at least 90% plus one share, it will compulsorily acquire the rest within 60 days of settlement, convert Emaar Development into a private joint stock company, and apply to delist it.

To get there, Emaar needs c. 394 mn of the 794 mn shares in public hands. Emaar Properties and its subsidiary Emirates Property Holdings hold 80.16% between them. The offer opened on Thursday after the Capital Market Authority (CMA) cleared it on 30 October. It closes on 10 December, with results due 11 December, unless Emaar extends the window by 14 days.

ADVISORS- JPMorgan is financial advisor to Emaar Properties on the offer, and A&O Shearman is counsel. Emirates NBD Capital is lead manager, with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) as co-lead manager.

Knauf is at 99.3% of United Mining Industries and is moving to delist it. The German building-materials group’s tender, which ran from 27 September to 4 November, drew about 5.05 mn shares, or 36.1% of capital, lifting its stake from 63.2%, the company said in a Tadawul filing. With roughly 0.7% left outstanding, it intends to ask the CMA to approve a mandatory offer for the remainder at no less than SAR 57, then delist the company, subject to CMA and shareholder approval.

Almost everything available came in. The minority block was about 5.15 mn shares, so acceptances ran at roughly 98% of what was there, by our math. Knauf built its original 63.2% stake, about 8.85 mn shares, from major shareholders in May for SAR 504.5 mn, which works out at SAR 57.01 a share by our math — the same price it then offered minority holders half a year later.

Banque du Caire closed its first week on the EGX 5.5% above its EGP 5.30 offer price, ending Monday at EGP 5.59, according to market data. Turnover has settled at around EGP 250 mn a session against EGP 2.02 bn on 2 November, about 12% of the first day’s level, by our math.

REFRESHER- BdC listed on 2 November after Banque Misr sold 45% for EGP 36.37 bn, the largest EGX IPO in at least a decade. Institutions covered the private placement 5.95x, or 19.79x excluding cornerstones. Helikon, Redwheel, Sustainable Capital, and Waha Investments committed USD 256 mn pre-launch, and the EBRD and the IFC each took up to 15.74% of the enlarged tranche, c. USD 102 mn apiece, or some 13.5% of the bank between them.

Muscat Stock Exchange CEO Haitham Al Salmi puts Oman’s reclassification to FTSE Secondary Emerging status in October 2027, and is “quite certain” the market will meet the requirements, he told Reuters. FTSE added Oman to its watchlist on 6 October and re-tests it on December data for an April 2027 update.

Oman is just over the threshold. Its seven eligible stocks are worth USD 12.2 bn net, about 11 bps of the FTSE Emerging All Cap — just above the 10 bps floor — according to Ubhar Capital’s 30 June count. That count predates July’s Omifco listing, which Al Salmi says should help, and three state-held IPOs are due in 2027, including a telecom and an energy utility.

Al Salmi puts the inflows at up to OMR 175 mn (USD 455 mn), about 0.4% of the exchange’s near-OMR 40 bn market value, by our math. GCC markets rose 6.3% on average in the 90 days before FTSE inclusion and fell 10.1% in the year after, according to Ubhar’s figures.

PIF has agreed to add USD 1.75 bn to its delayed-draw loan facility for Lucid Group, the loss-making US electric vehicle maker in which the fund is the largest shareholder. Lucid said yesterday that the larger facility gives it more room as it works through a turnaround, and will fund operations and key investments into 4Q 2027.

Third-quarter revenue came in at USD 350 mn, up 4% y-o-y, and the company cut its quarterly burn by 30% from the previous quarter to USD 1.04 bn. Both revenue and the adjusted loss of USD 2.30 a share fell short of analyst estimates.

FAB has bought Bahrain-based fund administrator Yasira Financial Services, adding private markets work to the securities services business it runs for regional asset managers. Terms were not disclosed, state news agency Wam reports. Yasira administers funds across listed assets, private equity, venture capital, and real estate, handling the full cycle for private funds from investor commitments and capital calls through to final distributions, and said it administered more than USD 7 bn in funds and structures when it rebranded from Crestbridge Bahrain in late 2023.

FAB had been buying this in. Its MENA securities services platform already covers custody and fund accounting, mostly in public markets, and Yasira will be folded into it and rebranded, letting the bank sell managers one package. FAB used Apex Group for fund administration on its own End of Service Benefits funds, as we reported at the time. Regional funds are getting larger and more complex, group head of investment banking and markets Linos Lekkas said, and FAB plans to keep Yasira’s clients and invest in the platform.

Invictus Investment is looking at majority stakes in companies valued at AED 730 mn to AED 1.1 bn (USD 199-300 mn), CEO Amir Daoud Abdellatif told Al Khaleej. The ADX-listed Ghitha unit wants to move further into midstream and downstream agri-commodities, and is targeting AED 25 bn of revenue by 2028, nearly double the AED 13.3 bn it booked last year, which was itself up 49% y-o-y on acquisitions.

What it holds now: Invictus has full or majority ownership of Mozambique’s Merec Industries, Angola’s Angata, and Morocco’s Graderco, plus a majority stake in an unnamed North African agro-food manufacturer. It sold a 49% minority stake in Merec last month for an undisclosed amount.

Saudi and Pakistani investors have launched a private equity fund to deepen private-sector trade and investment. The Saudi-Pakistan Joint Business Council, formed by both governments, puts the initial size at “multi-hundred mn” and expects it to grow, with three-quarters going to Pakistan and the rest to Saudi projects.

The last round of commitments converted slowly. Saudi and Pakistani businesses signed 34 agreements and MoUs worth USD 2.8 bn in October 2024, and by December seven had become formal agreements worth USD 560 mn, about a fifth of the headline value. Islamabad has said it wants Saudi capital that does not add to its debt.

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UAE-based fintech enza raised USD 6 mn in a Seed+ round to expand its payments infrastructure business into more African markets, the startup said in a press release. The company already serves banks and fintechs in 12 African countries. The raise brings its total funding to USD 12.8 mn, following a USD 6.8 mn seed round last year.

Market Snapshot

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