The UAE's MBME Group is to list its shares on the growth market of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange next week as part of its expansion plans.
MBME, a 100 per cent Emirati family business, said on Friday it will become the first FinTech company to list on the UAE's financial markets, on April 17.
MBME's platform offers payment collection and aggregation services to government and private sector entities, as well as retail customers. The company operates more than 4,000 touch points across the UAE, for 3.2 million customers.
The company said it “will deploy the proceeds of the capital increase to advance [its] global expansion and initiate horizontal and vertical integrations via product roll-outs and acquisitions”.
Demand for digital payments and other FinTech services has grown during the pandemic as more people use online banking services to transfer money and pay for e-commerce transactions.
Globally, digital payments are expected to grow to $8.26 trillion by 2024, from $4.4 trillion in 2020, according to Statista.
“Being listed will enable us to offer higher margin, innovative products and services to both new and existing customers in local, regional and global markets, while also advancing the development of market-leading proprietary technological know-how,” Ali Aldhaheri, chairman of MBME Group, said.
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ADX, the Arab world's second-largest bourse with a market capitalisation of about Dh2.7 trillion ($735 billion), has experienced a rush of listings in recent years amid Abu Dhabi's plans to boost its capital markets.
Companies that listed on the bourse last year include Borouge, the Abu Dhabi Ports Group, Abu Dhabi healthcare provider Burjeel Holdings and Bayanat, a geospatial data products and services provider owned by artificial intelligence and cloud computing company G42.
Americana, the largest quick-service restaurant operator in the Middle East and Africa region, raised $1.8 billion from its IPO in November when it was listed on the Abu Dhabi and Saudi stock exchanges.
This year, Adnoc Gas and Presight AI, a G42 company focused on data analytics and artificial intelligence, were listed on the ADX.
Supermarkets operator Lulu and Pure Health, a unit of Abu Dhabi-listed International Holding Company, have also announced plans to list in Abu Dhabi this year.
