Improved market sentiment encourages Middle East companies to list in London (By IFN)

Improved market sentiment encourages Middle East companies to list in London

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GLOBAL: Al Noor Hospitals Group, the largest integrated private healthcare service provider in Abu Dhabi has proposed to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to raise up to US$150 million through an IPO. The group, post-restructuring, is now a subsidiary of a UK public company which has control over Al Noor’s assets and business. According to Al Tamimi & Company, one of the law firms that worked on the transaction, this is the first listing of a UAE company on the LSE which has been achieved without the benefit of waivers and exemptions. Law firms Clifford Chance and Linklaters were also part of the team which executed the deal, while Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs acted as joint sponsors, joint global coordinators and bookrunners alongside HSBC. Rothschild acted as the deal’s financial advisor while KPMG was appointed as reporting accountant to Al Noor. The deal is expected to open up new opportunities for Middle East issuers in the UK capital market, according to Ahmed Ibrahim, head of Al Tamimi’s equity capital markets practice. He said: “It was a privilege to be able to develop and implement an innovative structure for Al Noor Group to enable it to access the liquidity of the London market and the strong institutional investor base which it offers. This deal clearly opens a new pipeline for issuers in the region and it will be fascinating to see how many other players tap into it.” Iain Hunter, a partner at Clifford Chance who also worked on the deal, believes that improved market sentiment in London will encourage more listings of this nature and encourage more Middle East issuers to tap the market. “We fully expect to see a continuing trend of companies from the Middle East considering a London listing. Whilst the London market is by no means out of the woods yet, market sentiment is much more positive now than it has been for a long time and this is showing in the transactions that have been launched recently. Based on what we are seeing, we anticipate strong equity capital markets activity for the remainder of the year.” Experts anticipate the healthcare industry in the GCC to grow exponentially over the next few years due to its fast growing population, deeper insurance penetration and higher incidence of lifestyle-related ailments.