Record-setting Borouge starts trading on ADX

Friday, 3 June 2022 12:05

By ARN News Staff

Petrochemicals company Borouge PLC, jointly owned by ADNOC and Borealis AG, started trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), following the completion of Abu Dhabi's largest-ever Initial Public Offering (IPO) and the Middle East's largest-ever petrochemicals listing.

The IPO, which raised gross proceeds of more than $2 billion for the offering of 10 per cent of the Company's total issued share capital, attracted total gross demand of more than $83.4 billion and was almost 42 times oversubscribed. The retail offering, which attracted higher retail demand than any UAE IPO in nearly 20 years, was 74 times oversubscribed.

Borouge's shares began trading at AED 2.45, implying a market capitalisation for the Company of $20.05 billion at the time of listing.

Borouge is the fourth company that ADNOC has brought to market since 2017 and follows the highly successful IPOs of ADNOC Distribution, ADNOC Drilling and Fertiglobe.

Speaking at the opening bell-ringing ceremony, Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, and Borouge Chairman, said, "ADNOC is delighted to have delivered today's truly record-setting IPO of Borouge, which marks Abu Dhabi's largest-ever market debut. With exceptional demand from local retail and institutional investors as well as the global institutional investor community, this historic listing is the fourth company we have successfully brought to market."

Founded in 1998 as a strategic joint venture between ADNOC and Borealis, Borouge is one of the world's leading providers of innovative and differentiated polyolefin solutions for agriculture, infrastructure, energy, packaging, mobility and healthcare industries. With the landmark IPO offering local and international investors the opportunity to own shares in one of the world's leading petrochemical players, Borouge expects to pay a dividend of $975 million for the fiscal year 2022, and to pay a dividend of no less than $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2023, equivalent to a 6.5 per cent dividend yield based on the offer share price.

Over the last six years, ADNOC has actively managed its businesses and capital and successfully developed a more open, flexible and innovative partnership model across its integrated upstream and downstream value chain. This value creation and growth strategy is enabled by a $127 billion (AED466 billion) capital investment programme across the Group between 2022 to 2026.

Borouge employs over 3,100 people and serves customers in more than 50 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Upon listing, ADNOC will continue to own a majority 54 per cent stake in Borouge, while Borealis ME will hold 36 per cent.