Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has raised Dh504 million ($137 million) in its rights issue, which was nearly three times oversubscribed with Dh1.46 billion in subscriptions received.

The rights issue, the first tradable rights issue for a bank in the UAE, forms part of the comprehensive capital plan to support ADIB’s strong growth plans.

Following the close of the subscription period on September 10, all 168 million shares were fully subscribed. The rights, which were traded on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, offered existing shareholders and investors who bought rights the opportunity to purchase ADIB shares at Dh3 per share.

Tirad Al Mahmoud, ADIB’s group chief executive officer said: “The ADIB rights issue – led by the Bank’s own Equity Capital Markets and Finance teams with close support from a cross section of other key functions in the Bank -- has been a resounding success thanks to support from our shareholders.”

“ADIB is in the process of enhancing its capital to support our growth strategy, and is pleased to have promoted the further development of the UAE capital markets by proving that secondary equity offerings can draw strong investor interest. With our strong and diverse capital base, we now are focused on continued expansion and delivering the superior returns our shareholders and capital market investors have come to expect from ADIB,” he added.

During the rights issue, ADIB mobilised 40 of its branches to receive subscriptions coordinated by a dedicated team in its central operations unit. ADIB also provided its customers with the ability to subscribe digitally through the ADIB internet banking portal and ADIB mobile banking application for iOS and Android, the first of such cases in UAE equity offerings.  

ADIB also ran an extensive investor education campaign, placing regular advertisements in UAE media and operating a dedicated Rights Issue call centre that addressed all investor queries and explained different options for shareholders and investors.

On September 20, subscribers were informed of their final share allocation, with refunds given in cases where subscriptions to new shares could not be fully allocated. – TradeArabia News Service