Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) on Saturday announced that, following approval from the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), it had exercised its right to increase the number of shares offered in the First Tranche (Retail Tranche) of its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Following significant demand and oversubscription from retail investors, the Government of Dubai - as the selling shareholder - decided to increase the size of the Retail Tranche from 260 million shares to 760 million shares.

This means the number of shares offered in the Dewa IPO has increased from 8.5 billion ordinary shares to 9 billion ordinary shares, which would result in a free float of 18 per cent of Dewa's share capital, with the Government of Dubai continuing to own 82 percent of Dewa's share capital.

Based on the previously announced price range of Dhs2.25 to Dhs2.48 per share, the Retail Tranche will now be between Dhs1.71 billion and Dhs1.88 billion ($ 465.62 - $ 513.22 million).

Including investors that participated in the Third Tranche (Dewa Eligible Employees), retail investors will represent 9.2 percent of the total upsized deal.

The subscription period for the Dewa IPO remains unchanged and will close on April 2, 2022, for UAE retail investors and on April 5, 2022, for qualified domestic and international institutional investors.

Dewa is expected to be listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) on or around April 12, 2022.

WAM