United Arab Emirates: Dubai road-toll operator Salik announced on Monday about selling 20 percent of the company through an initial public offering.
The third state-linked organisation to apply for a listing this year as part of a scheme to pique investor interest in the domestic stock exchange is Dubai’s Salik, which operates the country’s road tolls.
According to the prospectus document, Salik, which was established in 2007 and had 3.6 million cars registered on the toll system, is offering 1.5 billion shares.
According to the sources, the corporation is trying to raise roughly $1 billion for the shares, indicating a valuation of about $5 billion.
Before the IPO, Salik held a number of investor meetings, which verified interest in the offering and investor expectations, according to chief executive Ibrahim Al Haddad.
Along with this, Al Haddad mentioned in the statement, “Salik is a quality asset, and the feedback we received from investors was confirming this fact, which allows us to be really selective when it comes to strategic investors that we want to bring in our book-building.”
According to him, the business is in talks with possible anchor investors.
As part of a government drive to list ten state-linked companies, it is the most recent state-controlled corporation to launch a public share sale.
While business park operator TECOM raised $463 million in June, Dubai’s energy and water provider DEWA raised $6.1 billion in its IPO in April.
By April of the following year, Salik anticipates paying a dividend for the second half of 2022. Beginning in 2023, the firm also intends to pay a dividend equal to 100 percent of the net profit that is eligible for distribution.
In order to possibly lessen congestion, Salik said it might implement so-called dynamic pricing, which might, for instance, see higher toll rates for specific lane use or usage during peak hours.
In the first half of this year, Salik recorded core earnings of 800 million dirhams ($217.82 million), up from 637.41 million in the corresponding period of 2021.
It is an initial public offering (IPO) which contains three tranches:
-one for retail investors,
-one for accredited investors, and
-one for staff.