Amanat tells of its Dh1.37bn IPO to get grip on education and health care market

Faisal Bin Juma Belhoul, the chairman of Amanat. Lee Hoagland / The National

Amanat has revealed details of its Dh1.375 billion initial public offering aimed at exploiting the region’s booming markets in health care and education.

The new company – already backed by Dh1.125bn of capital from big investors in the GCC region – is looking to raise the rest via an offering on the Dubai Financial Market, which should take place next month.

Faisal bin Juma Belhoul, the Amanat chairman, said: “We have reached a key moment for health and education in the region. We will partner with governments, companies and entrepreneurs, and we aim to be leaders in these two sectors, focused on the UAE and Saudi Arabia.”

The IPO is the first health and education company to go public on a regional market. Other companies in health care have looked to the London Stock Exchange to successfully raise funds, while the education business is in non-quoted ownership.

It will be the second “greenfield” IPO in Dubai in recent months. Marka, the upmarket retailer and leisure group, successfully debuted on the DFM. A greenfield company is one with no significant assets or trading record, where potential investors back the strategy and judgment of the founder investors.

Mr Belhoul said: “These sectors are very attractive in terms of potential growth, but are underserved by the capital markets at the moment. We have very sophisticated investors already, and the recent IPOs of Emaar Malls and Marka show there is a an interest and appetite among retail investors in the UAE.

Like Emaar Malls, which was 20 times oversubscribed in the UAE, investors in the Amanat IPO will be able to subscribe for shares via ATM machines at branches of Emirates NBD, the co-lead receiving bank, and by traditional methods at eight other banks in the UAE, including the joint lead manager National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

Mr Belhoul said that although the offer was primarily aimed at regional investors, it was also open to international institutions, which he welcomed as potential shareholders.

Emirates Investment Authority, which has the right to subscribe to up to 5 per cent of the offering, has been invited to take up its entitlement. “They’ve got five days to think about it. We hope they do,” said Mr Belhoul.

Mr Belhoul is also executive vice chairman of private equity group Ithmar, which is sitting on a 20 per cent stake worth about £180 million (Dh1.05 billion) in Al Noor healthcare group, which is listed in London.

He said there were no plans to include the Al Noor shares among Amanat assets.

There has been speculation that volatile global market conditions might spark second thoughts among local executives considering IPOs, but Mr Belhoul said this was not the case.

“We need to always take into account the global and the macro, and there has been a little bit of turbulence lately. But the local markets are not so vulnerable to these. The IPOs of Emaar Malls and Marka were heavily oversubscribed. Our timing couldn’t be better,” he said.

Amanat’s investment will be split roughly 50/50 in health care and education, although the exact allocation of funds would depend on timing of investment opportunities.

Of the funds raised in the IPO, 70 per cent will be allocated to buy existing businesses in health and education, with up to six potential targets to be identified within the next two years.

Some 25 per cent of the funds will be invested in real estate infrastructure associated with the projects, and 5 per cent to corporate ventures with leading practitioners in health and education as well as “cutting-edge technology”, Mr Belhoul said.

The offer opens for subscriptions on Monday. Subscription for the shares, priced at Dh1 each, will close on November 4, with a minimum subscription of 5,000 shares.

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