Agility Global shares soar on ADX debut

The company, a unit of Kuwait's logistics major Agility, recorded $3.9 billion in revenue last year

There has been a listing boom on the UAE bourses in recent years, including on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. Photo: ADX

The shares of Agility Global, a unit of regional logistics major Agility, nearly quadrupled in value after the company began trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on Thursday.

Its stock opened at Dh1.48 per share, up as much as 300 per cent compared to the reference price of Dh0.37 per share provided by the company.

Shares of the company settled 327 per cent higher at Dh1.58 each at the closing of trading in Abu Dhabi, giving Agility Global a market value of about Dh16.46 billion ($4.48 billion).

The company's stock ended the day as the second-most traded in terms of daily value and volume on the ADX.

Agility Global is trading under the symbol Agility. Its parent company is listed on the Dubai Financial Market and Boursa Kuwait.

As the operations and assets management unit of Agility, its portfolio includes services company Menzies Aviation, Tristar, a global fuel logistics business, as well as Agility’s global logistics parks business in Saudi Arabia, Africa and South Asia.

Other businesses include a remote site company GCC Services, a defence and government services logistics business and a digital logistics platform Shipa, according to its website.

Registered at Abu Dhabi Global Market, Agility Global has operations in more than 70 countries. It posted revenue of $3.9 billion for 2023 and employs 50,000 people.

There has been a listing boom in the UAE and wider GCC markets in recent years as the economies rebounded strongly from the pandemic-induced slowdown on the back of government reforms and higher oil prices.

The UAE, the Arab world's second-largest economy, topped in terms of the funds raised last year in the GCC through IPOs. Issuers secured $6.07 billion from eight listings on UAE exchanges, accounting for about 56.3 per cent of total proceeds, according to data from Kamco.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange was the top regional bourse with $4.9 billion, followed by the Dubai Financial Market with $500 million.

Several companies including Parkin, Salik, Tecom, Empower, Dubai Taxi Company and Al Ansari Financial Services, Pure Health, Adnoc Gas and Investcorp Capital, listed their shares on the UAE bourses in the past two years.

The momentum has continued into this year, with Spinneys, the operator of premium supermarkets in the UAE and Oman, expected to list its shares on the DFM on May 9 and commence trading after it raised Dh1.38 billion through the float.