The Middle East North Africa (MENA) region saw 51 IPOs last year, raising $22bn, a 179% increase on 2021, a report in the Financial Times said, citing the advisory firm EY.
The increase in IPOs amounts to a boom in an otherwise subdued global climate for public listings.
According to the FT report, Miguel Azevedo, Citigroup’s chair of investment banking for the Middle East and Africa, said the region had “come on to the radar screen…Lots of people moved here after Covid and there were lots of IPOs here, so it forced the world to look at the region, which has grabbed attention when there was nothing going on in the rest of the world,” he said.
EY added that the IPO market for 2023 looked “healthy.”
The report added that private capital fund managers deployed $19.8bn in 191 Middle East deals last year, the only place in the world to post a year-on-year increase in investment value in 2022.
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