Lulu sets price range for shares, begins IPO subscription

Lulu Retail Holdings PLC announced the price range for the sale of its shares and the start of the subscription period for its initial public offering (IPO) on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).

In a statement released on Monday, the company said that the subscription period starts today and is expected to close November 5 for the UAE Retail Offering, Eligible Senior Executives, and for Professional Investors.

The offer price range has been set between AED 1.94 and AED 2.04 per share. Assuming all the shares offered are sold, the size of the offering will be between AED 5.01 billion ($1.36 billion) and AED 5.27 billion ($1.43 billion).

Based on the offer price range, Lulu Retail is set to list with a market capitalisation of between AED 20.04 billion ($5.46 billion) and AED 21.07 billion ($5.74 billion).

A total of 2,582,226,338 ordinary shares, representing 25 per cent of the total issued Shares in the company, are to be sold by the company’s sole shareholder, Lulu International Holdings Limited.

The final offer price will be determined through a book building process and is expected to be announced on November 6.

The company is targeting a total dividend pay-out ratio of 75 per cent of annual distributable profits after tax, paid semi-annually, subject to its dividend policy.

Chief Executive Officer of Lulu Retail, Saifee Rupawala, said, “We expect continued strong macroeconomic growth across our six markets driven by favourable demographic and consumption trends, and we continue to invest in our business to drive growth and loyalty across our existing 240-store network while also opening new stores, enhancing our operational efficiencies, growing our private label range and our online and ecommerce business.”

Admission of the shares to trading on the ADX is expected to take place on November 14.