These Middle East-Based Firms Listed On Foreign Exchanges In Q1 2022

Several Arab companies are tapping into the booming trend of blank-check companies as they seek a faster road to public trading with less regulatory scrutiny than a traditional IPO.

- KUDAKWASHE MUZORIWA

Following a record-breaking year for IPOs in 2021, Russia's war in Ukraine, rising inflation, and high-interest rates have roiled global equity markets in 2022, forcing several companies including valuable startups to shelve plans to go public. However, stock exchanges in the GCC region have bucked the trend and are bracing for yet another year of record listings after (DEWA) raised $6.1 billion in April.

GCC stock markets are introducing several initiatives such as the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange's (ADX) regulatory framework for the listing of special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACS). SPACs are blank-check firms that are listed on a stock exchange and seek to raise funds with the intent of using the capital to acquire a private target company (usually within two years), according to EY.

Here are two regional companies that went public on international markets in a SPAC deal in Q1 2022.

The companies' ordinary shares' market capitalization are as of May 10, 2022.

Anghami