Daman Investments, a United Arab Emirates investment management firm, said on Monday it planned to list on the Dubai Financial Market during the first quarter of 2015.

Dubai-based Daman will sell new shares equivalent to 55 per cent of the firm to the public, with proceeds from the flotation to be used to expand its existing business and to fund new opportunities in its home market and the wider region, a statement distributed at a media event said.

Emirates Investment Bank has been appointed financial adviser and lead manager of the offer, with law firm White & Case acting as legal adviser, the statement added.

The decision to float fulfils Daman’s previous announcement to go public, which was made in 2009 and the company plans to list its shares on he Dubai Financial Market (DFM) during the first quarter of next year, said a statement at the firm’s annual press conference.

The firm offers innovative investment products and services to both regional and international clients, and provides investment management and development capital investment opportunities as well as brokerage operations through its subsidiaries.

Shehab Gargash, chairman and founder, said: “Funds raised through the IPO will be used to scale up our existing business and invest in various opportunities in the UAE and the wider region.”

The current shareholders are not exiting through the offering, he said. The new funds will increase the capital of the company equating to 55 per cent of post share capital with existing shareholders diluting to 45 per cent.

Khalid Sifri, CEO of Emirates Investment Bank (EIBank), which has been appointed by Daman as the lead manager with White and Case acting as legal advisors to the IPO, said: “We at Emirates Investment Bank are excited to be acting as the financial advisor and offering manager for Daman on this important IPO. 

“We are truly excited about playing a role in helping Daman cross this important milestone in its history. We have great confidence in the success of this IPO given Daman’s track record, investor base, recognition and market status, as well as the strong current interest in IPOs in our region.”

Daman Investments also unveiled the findings of its annual market forecast report according to which the UAE equity markets’ fundamentals remain robust, at the press conference.

As per the firm’s report titled ‘Year of the Primaries’, activity at the UAE bourses -the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) will regain momentum in the fourth quarter of the year, as investors position themselves for full year results, the upcoming dividend season  and the forthcoming IPO pipeline.

In the medium to long-term, the market outlook remains upbeat as indicated by nine out of the 13 key factors being positive which include the general macro environment, real estate revival, and the healthy state of the UAE banks, increased corporate earnings and liquidity as well as the recent MSCI market upgrade.

At the core of this optimistic outlook sits the UAE’s burgeoning banking sector with increasing growth in net interest incomes and declining trends in non-performing loans, metrics which underline the overall corporate sector’s economic recovery, said the report.

Dubai-listed banks grew their bottom line by 58 per cent in the first half of this year with Abu Dhabi listed banks growing by 13 per cent for a combined net income of Dh17.5 billion ($4.7 billion), it said.

The yields on UAE sovereign debt continue to be relatively low in comparison to the earnings yields’ of the UAE’s stock market indices and given the high equity risk premium available. The report concluded that equities will continue to be the preferred asset class in the UAE. – Reuters and TradeArabia News Service