Dubai: DEWA mulls launching Empower IPO

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The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) on Thursday said it is reviewing the possibility of launching the initial public offering (IPO) of its majority-owned subsidiary Emirates Central Cooling Systems (Empower).

The utility services provider on Thursday said Empower recorded Dh1.154 billion revenues and Dh432 million net profit in H1 2022, representing a 16 per cent and 11 per cent increase, respectively, versus the same period in the last year.

While Dewa reported Dh3.3 billion net profit for the first half of 2022, an increase of 33 per cent, revenues jumped 15 per cent to Dh12.08 billion during the January-June period.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority also went public earlier this year, and its IPO witnessed an overwhelming subscription, attracting Dh315 billion worth of offers. With 9 billion shares worth Dh22.3 billion, the IPO was the largest in the Middle East and Europe since the beginning of 2022.

Dewa's IPO saw the participation of international sovereign and private funds as well as 65,000 individual investors.

Empower offering could be part of the Dubai government's announcement to list 10 entities on the local stock market to improve liquidity. Based on the strong response to the parent company, Empower's IPO is expected to attract strong interest as well from both retail and institutional investors.

In July, Empower, the world's largest district cooling provider based in Dubai, launched a massive development programme that will expand and improve the district cooling infrastructure in the region.

The project makes the Business Bay area in Dubai the single largest and independent urban district cooling project in the world, with a total capacity of 450,000 refrigeration tons (RT) through six cooling plants and 10 thermal energy storage tanks, including the existing and upcoming plants and tanks. It is expected to complete all the development project phases by the end of 2022.