The Al Habtoor Group, an Emirati conglomerate with holdings across the hospitality, automotive, residential real estate, and education sectors, looks to be edging towards the public markets.
The multimillion-dollar company is controlled by billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor and his family, and yesterday announced that a possible 30-35% stake of the company could be up for grabs on the bourse. The CEO mentioned the recent performance of the tourism industry in Dubai as one of the reasons for why listing in the upcoming year is ideal.
It’s a big decision and incredibly indicative of the UAE’s wider push towards the public markets. Over the past few months or so, the government plans to denationalize 10 state-owned companies and grow the exchange’s size to $816b. Al Habtoor’s listing pushes the bourse closer to that figure.
Why it matters
Al Habtoor Group's listing incentivizes other businesses to consider the listing route, while Al Habtoor’s size is set to give investors attractive exposure to a large, diversified underlying portfolio of businesses.