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UAE retail giant LuLu Group will open its IPO by the last week of October or early November and a dual listing is expected to raise between $1.5 billion and $1.85 billion, people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, told Zawya.
The stock will be listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Saudi Arabian stock exchange, Tadawul.
“The IPO offering should open in the window between the last week of October and early November, making it an ideal period before the December holidays set in,” a source said.
Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC Holdings, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Citigroup have been tapped as book runners for the IPO, a source said, adding, the offering “will be four to five times bigger than another retail IPO the UAE saw earlier this year.”
LuLu Group declined to comment, when contacted by Zawya.
In 2022, the retailer onboarded Moelis & Co as financial advisor for the IPO.
In April, Spinneys, the operator of premium grocery retail supermarkets in the UAE and Oman, raised 1.38 billion UAE dirhams ($375 million) through its IPO on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), resulting in more than $19 billion in orders, indicating strong demand from the UAE and global institutional investor community.
Abu Dhabi-headquartered LuLu Group, which operates 260 LuLu stores and 24 shopping malls across the GCC, Egypt, India, and the Far East, was founded by Yussuf Ali in the 1990s.
ADQ bought a 20% stake worth just over $1 billion in the group in 2020, paving the way for an investment supporting the group’s expansion of operations in Egypt.
In August 2023, it was reported that LuLu was raising AED 10 billion dirhams to refinance debt ahead of a potential IPO, which the company said will help in expanding its footprint with 80 new hypermarkets across the GCC, Egypt and beyond, while enhancing supply chain networks and e-commerce capabilities.
The LuLu Group reported an annual turnover of about $8 billion in 2022.
(Reporting by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
