After several torrid years, the Middle East IPO market staged a healthy comeback in 2017. The planned listing of Saudi state-energy giant Aramco has dominated discussions on the outlook for regional IPOs in 2018. But even if this is delayed into 2019, this year looks to have a healthy pipeline, with the UAE and Egypt to the fore.
The value of Middle Eastern IPOs more than quadrupled from $676mn in 2016 to $3bn in 2017. However, to put this in perspective, 2014 was three times higher, with the value of IPOs coming in at $9.8bn. Saudi Arabia was the driver in 2014, with the 15% IPO of National Commercial Bank raising $6bn, nearly two thirds of the total. (CONTINUED - 1802 WORDS)
