LONDON: Abu Dhabi’s Al Noor Hospitals listed in London yesterday, valuing the company at £672m ($1.04bn), as it looks to take advantage of the growing healthcare sector in the Gulf.
So-called lifestyle diseases are rising in tandem with wealth in the region where five of the six Gulf nations are in the global top 10 for prevalence of diabetes. The emirate’s largest private healthcare provider said it had raised 97 million pounds from the sale of new shares to invest in the business.
Its co-owners, private equity group Ithmar Capital and founders Sheikh Mohammed bin Butti Al Hamed and Chief Executive Kassem Alom, will bank a total of £124m from the sale of existing shares in the offering.
“Investor interest was driven by the longer term trends in the region: Population growth, general health, the expansion in insurance,” a source close to the deal said. About 80-90 percent of demand came from investors in Britain and the United States, where there are a high concentration of emerging market funds.
At 575 pence a share, Al Noor is on a 2013 price-to-earnings multiple of about 15.5, a premium to its closest peer NMC — the first UAE healthcare company to list on the London Stock Exchange — which trades at about 13.5, the source said.
Al Noor chose to float a 32.9 percent stake in London because NMC is London-listed and UK listing rules are more flexible than those in its home market, he said. The price was in the lower half of its original 525 to 725 pence per share range. A person familiar with the matter said the company had narrowed the range to 575 to 625 pence per share earlier this week. Its shares were trading at 578 pence by 0840 GMT.
Despite a resurgence of London listings this year, the market is still choppy. Britain’s FTSE 100 index saw its biggest one-day drop since September 2011 on Thursday as markets fell worldwide after news that the U.S. Federal Reserve planned to scale back its equity-friendly stimulus programme.
Also, Casino owner Macau Legend Development Ltd postponed an up to $786m initial public offering in Hong Kong, sources said. Al Noor said the offer could be increased by as much as 12.4 percent through sales of existing shares depending on demand. Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were joint sponsors and global coordinators on the offering, with HSBC acting as joint book-runner. Reuters
