Pure Health, the UAE’s largest healthcare group, plans to launch an initial public offering next month and list its shares on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange amid continued IPO momentum in the Emirates.
The listing of Pure Heath – whose assets span insurance companies to hospitals, clinics and diagnostics facilities – on the Arab world’s second-largest bourse, is subject to regulatory approvals and other relevant considerations, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Current shareholders in Pure Health are Alpha Dhabi Holding and International Holding Company (IHC) Healthcare Holding, subsidiaries of the Abu Dhabi conglomerate IHC, and Abu Dhabi holding company ADQ, by way of a wholly owned subsidiary.
“This IPO will position Abu Dhabi as a front-runner in the global healthcare landscape,” Farhan Malik, managing director of Pure Health, said.
“It will enable Pure Health to continue to … expand the depth and geographic reach of groundbreaking innovation for patients, healthcare technology, expansion globally through acquisitions.”
The company also this year completed a Dh1.8 billion purchase of an equity investment in Ardent Health Services, which is the US’s fourth-largest private healthcare group operating across six states.
In January last year, ADQ signed a deal to merge its healthcare subsidiaries, including Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, better known as Seha, and the National Health Insurance Company (Daman) with Alpha Dhabi’s Pure Health to create the Emirates’ largest healthcare provider.
ADQ merged its healthcare entities, Rafed and Union71, with Pure Health in 2021.
Pure Health now has a network of more than 25 hospitals, 160 laboratories, 100 clinics and a workforce of more than 24,000 employees.
In June last year, Pure Health committed to spend Dh10 billion over the next 10 years on procuring products in the UAE and supporting the country’s economy.
The company did not say how much it plans to raise through its planned IPO.
“The planned listing would allow Pure Health to claim a position among the world’s leading health care groups, benefitting people in an increasing number of countries while reliably leading the way in executing development objectives of our nation,” said Pure Health chairman Hamad Al Hammadi.
Pure Health’s IPO plans come amid a surge in listing activity on regional stock markets including the ADX, the Dubai Financial Market and Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul, as their economies recover from the coronavirus-induced slowdown on the back of higher oil prices and government reforms.
The volume of IPOs on bourses in the Mena region climbed by 44 per cent annually in the second quarter of this year amid robust economic growth, global consultancy EY said.
Middle East IPOs raised more than $23 billion in 2022 from 48 listings, compared with $7.52 billion from 20 offerings in the previous year, EY data shows.