Gulf's biggest IPO for 2024 marks successful Dubai debut

After raising almost $2 billion in the tech sector's largest IPO this year, Talabat Holding surged in its Dubai market debut. Talabat Holdings is an active operator in the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Bahrain. After acquiring the UAE meal delivery operation of Indian firm Zomato in 2019 and the online grocery platform InstaShop in 2020, Talabat's Delivery Hero further solidified its position in the region.

Shares of delivery hero rose to 1.72 dirhams, or $0.47, up 7.5 per cent from the highest point of the IPO marketing range. The offer price was 1.6 dirhams per share. As a result of the rise on debut, the company's market value hit around 40 billion dirhams.

Delivery hero was able to raise about 7.5 billion dirhams, thanks to substantial demand from anchor orders. The firm increased the number of shares on offer from 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the unit. Bloomberg also indicates that the tech IPO was the biggest in the Gulf region for this year.

Companies in the Persian Gulf have raised almost $12 billion through IPOs this year as part of their attempts to broaden and deepen their capital markets. Regional governments have attracted a large number of private sector enterprises from industries as diverse as retail, healthcare, and finance. Businesses catering to consumers have benefited from the increased population in major hubs like Dubai.