Emaar IPO injects confidence back into region

With Emaar announcing its initial public offering of its malls unit in October, it has become apparent that investors are once again looking to Dubai as the place to be when it comes to real estate. Emaar Properties has set the initial public offering of its malls business in Dubai for October in what could be the largest share sale in the UAE since the financial crisis, said the Financial Times.
The sale reflects a resurgence of investor interest in Dubai. A successful IPO could encourage other firms to follow and would be a further boon for the UAE, which in June was upgraded by the MSCI index from the investor category of frontier market to emerging market.
Emaar Properties, whose developments include The Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, said on Sunday that it expected to list at least 15% of its malls business in the offering, which was first announced in May.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index closed at 5,062.97 points on Sunday, up 135 points, or 2.73% over last week’s close at 4,928.22 points. This marks the first time the Dubai benchmark index has breached the 5,000-mark after hitting a six-year-high in April this year, just before the MSCI’s classification upgrade of the UAE markets to emerging markets took effect.