Dubai Investments, a well-diversified company listed on the Dubai Financial Market, aims to sell stakes in four companies through initial public offerings (IPOs), said Khalid bin Kalban, vice chairman and CEO of Dubai Investments.
“We are planning to float four companies and hopefully one every year. We have done internal and external evaluations. We are already engaged with the authorities and some of them have given the nod and others suggested to wait a year or so to grow the companies further. They don’t think that we should go public with a value lower than $500 million. And that’s fine. This would take us a year or two to get to that,” Bin Kalban told Khaleej Times in an interview on Wednesday.
He elaborated that the firm has conducted internal and external evaluations of the companies as part of its preparations to take them public and get approvals from the authorities and banks.
He added that following the introduction of corporate tax by the UAE, firms are now required to evaluate their companies.
Bin Kalban was speaking after the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday.
Tariff impact on IPOs
The global stock markets have been hit hard by the global tariff uncertainty after the US announced tax increases on goods imported into the US. This has shaken the UAE and regional equity markets as well.
However, Dubai Investments’ CEO believes that it will not impact the plans of local companies to go public.
“I think the tariff is an overrated issue. The US is trying to be fair with everybody else… We don’t think this region will be affected. We are debating whether it’s going to be positive or negative for this region. The majority will tell you that it’s going to be positive because companies from other countries will consider relocation to UAE and region due to high tariffs imposed on those countries,” he added.
Bin Kalban said tariffs imposed in the UAE and the region are only 10 per cent and that too only on specific industries like aluminum.
Stronger Q1 results
Dubai Investments posted a net profit before tax attributable to shareholders of Dh1.3 billion for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, compared to Dh1.07 billion during the same period last year, marking a 21 per cent increase.
The group’s total income grew to Dh4.66 billion, mainly driven by the sale of properties amounting to Dh1.03 billion due to strong demand for real estate projects and efficient execution of the Danah Bay project on Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah and higher rental income due to occupancy levels maintained in DIP and acquisition of additional assets in Al Mal Capital REIT.
“We have done very well in 2024 and could have done more but had to take some provisions of over Dh270 million. That’s a lot of money. If we didn’t have to do that, our profit would have gone over Dh1.5-Dh1.6 billion,” he said.
Dubai Investments’ chief executive revealed that 2025 looks very promising.
“We got preliminary financials results for the first quarter and it is better than Q1 last year. First quarter 2025 profits will hopefully be higher by over 20 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. The first quarter is much better than what we anticipated. We started on a very positive note and I think we will end up with a very positive note at the end of the year.”
“We are on solid ground and going according to the strategy. There are a lot of projects under study. We will reveal them once we get approval from the other parties.”
Expanding real estate, healthcare portfolio
Khalid bin Kalban revealed that Dubai Investments has aggressive expansion and acquisitions plans in the real estate and healthcare sectors.
“We’ve acquired 350,000 square feet of land adjacent to RAK Central in Ras Al Khaimah to develop 20-25 storey towers. We’re in discussion with various parties to buy lands across other emirates as well. So if that materialises, then we’ll definitely grow our portfolio much bigger than what the market anticipates,” he said.
He added that there is a strong interest in real estate, especially in office towers.
“We have a lot of interested investors. We are building an office tower and there is a lot of demand for this tower. In fact, we have a gentleman who wants to buy the entire tower today. There is a shortage of luxury office space in the market.”
He added that Dubai Investment’s subsidiary Globalpharma is expanding locally and internationally. It owns roughly 35 per cent of King’s Hospital which is also going for expansion. “We’re discussing to increase our portfolio by buying a new hospital and expanding existing.”
