Pure Health soars 77% as it starts trading on Abu Dhabi bourse after $986m IPO

The company's share price went as high as Dh5.77 on its first day of trading before closing at Dh5.74

Pure Health's retail tranche was oversubscribed 483 times. Victor Besa / The National

Pure Health, the UAE’s largest healthcare group, soared on its debut on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on Wednesday, after an initial public offering that raised Dh3.62 billion ($986 million).

Shares in the company, whose offering registered “significant demand” from investors in the UAE and the region, opened at Dh5.50 and surged as high as 77 per cent to Dh5.77 in early trading, before settling at Dh5.74 at the close.

Pure Health priced its listing at Dh3.26 a share, with an offering size of 1.11 billion ordinary shares, or 10 per cent of its total issued share capital. Pure Health's founders will retain a 90 per cent stake in the company.

The retail tranche was oversubscribed 483 times and the institutional offering attracted Dh186 billion, indicating an oversubscription level of 54 times.

Pure Health's IPO is the sixth on the ADX in 2023 and brings the total value of listings on the exchange this year to $5.57 billion.

“We will continue to transform health care, in line with the vision of Abu Dhabi’s leadership, together delivering accessible, world-class healthcare backed by the latest in AI [artificial intelligence] technology and supported by continued public and private sector collaboration,” Farhan Malik, co-founder and managing director of Pure Health, said in a statement.

“Pure Health is now becoming into a healthcare equity platform where our focus will be on international expansion.

“This listing will further support our equity growth story by enabling us in taking the organisation from Abu Dhabi to the world.”

Pure Health's debut on the ADX comes a day after it appointed Shaista Asif, the company's co-founder and group chief operating officer, as its new group chief executive.

Ms Asif was ranked ninth by Forbes Middle East on its list of the 100 Most Powerful Businesswomen in 2023 and first in health care.

Mr Malik's role has been expanded and he will now lead efforts to develop Pure Health's business globally, “formulating effective strategies and ensuring the delivery of service excellence to clients, thereby adding value to shareholders”, the company said.

Pure Health's IPO comes in the middle of a listings boom in the Arabian Gulf, driven by government incentives, foreign investor interest and diversification efforts.

IPO activity in the wider Mena region continued to gather momentum in the second quarter of 2023, as the volume of IPOs on regional bourses surged 44 per cent annually amid robust economic growth, data from global consultancy EY showed.

The strong listing activity this year came amid increasing investor interest and a public mandate aimed at supporting IPOs to boost liquidity in local bourses.

There were a total of 29 IPOs with total proceeds of $5.8 billion in the first nine months of the year in the Mena region, with all the listing activity taking place in the GCC, EY said.

“We aim to continuously strengthen our market infrastructure and trading offerings and investment services to enable more local and global companies to achieve their capital raising and investment ambitions,” said Abdulla Alnuaimi, chief executive of the ADX.

Founded in 2006, Pure Health became the largest healthcare provider in the UAE in January 2022 when it was merged with the healthcare subsidiaries of Abu Dhabi holding company ADQ.

It now has more than 25 hospitals, 100 clinics, diagnostic centres, health insurance solutions, pharmacies, health technology platforms and procurement solutions.

These include centres operated by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, better known as Seha; the National Health Insurance Company, better known as Daman; the Medical Office, which oversees the Sheikh Khalifa group of hospitals and healthcare centres; and Rafed, a healthcare purchasing company.

Pure Health's network also includes laboratory operator PureLab, the Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Centre, One Health – which provides medical solutions – and pharmacy The Life Corner.

The company also recently acquired Circle Health Group, the UK’s largest independent operator of hospitals, in a deal valued at Dh4.41 billion ($1.2 billion).

In May, Pure Health completed its Dh1.8 billion purchase of an equity investment in Ardent Health Services, the fourth-largest privately held acute care hospital operator in the US.