Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corp. (Empower) saw its shares rise 2.23% in its first day of trading on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) under the ticker EMPOWER, according to market data. Empower’s shares closed at AED 1.36 after debuting at AED 1.33.

REFRESHER- The company sold a 20% stake (2 bn shares) in its IPO, with 85% of the offering (1.7 bn shares) placed with institutional investors in a private placement and the remaining 15% tranche (300 mn shares) sold to retail investors, according to the company’s prospectus (pdf).

Appetite was strong going in: The retail portion of Empower’s IPO closed more than 49x oversubscribed last week, while the offering to institutional orders was 46x oversubscribed. Empower had completed its bookbuilding at AED 2.6 bn (USD 724 mn), setting a final price of AED 1.33 per share at the top of the price range. “The huge success of the privatization program so far shows that Dubai is well on its way to achieve the vision of the wise leadership to increase the total volume of its stock markets to AED 3 tn,” Empower Chairman Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer said in a company statement. This is DFM’s fourth public offering this year.

Who bought in? Some 12.6% of the private placement shares were placed with the UAE Strategic Investment Fund, Shamal Holding, and the Abu Dhabi Pension Fund. Some 5% was reserved to offer to the Emirates Investment Authority, and a further 5% to the Pensions and Social Security Fund of Local Military Personnel.

Who was selling? Majority shareholder Dubai Electricity and Water Authority contributed 14 percentage points of their stake and Emirates Power Investment (a Dubai Holding subsidiary) is offering 6 percentage points. Following the offering, DEWA will hold a 56% stake and Emirates Power’s stake will be 24%, according to the disclosure.

ADVISORS- Empower appointed Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Emirates NBD as joint global coordinators on its IPO, with our friends at EFG Hermes acting as joint bookrunner. Moelis and Emirates NBD are acting as financial advisers. Emirates NBD is the lead receiving bank for the transaction, while our friends at Mashreq Bank are receiving banks alongside Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Ajman Bank, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, MBank, and Sharjah Islamic Bank.

EARNINGS WATCH- Empower reported AED 300.3 mn in net income in 3Q 2022, rising 10.8% y-o-y, according to a financial statement (pdf) the company also released yesterday. The company’s revenues rose 12.9% y-o-y during the quarter to AED 918.8 mn. On a nine-month basis, Empower’s bottom line rose 10.9% y-o-y to AED 732.0 mn on revenues of AED 2.1 bn, up 14.7% y-o-y.