DIP Holding IPO: Dubai Investments to sell 20% on DFM

Dubai Investments PJSC will offer a 20% stake in DIP Holding, operator of Dubai Investments Park, in a DIP Holding IPO on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). Subscriptions open on 27 October.

There will be 1,735,243,300 existing shares in the deal, all sold by Dubai Investments, which currently holds 100% of the company. DIP Holding will raise no money from the sale, according to the offering documents released on 19 October. It will be the first IPO on the DFM this year.

The price range will be announced on 27 October, when the offer opens, and the final offer price on 4 November. The DFM listing is expected on or around 11 November, when DIP Holding shares should start trading, subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions.

How the DIP Holding IPO is structured

The offer has been divided into four tranches. Retail investors in the UAE have been allocated 5%, or 86,762,165 shares, with a guaranteed minimum of 2,000 shares per investor and a minimum subscription of AED5,000 (about $1,360). Professional investors have 92%, or 1,596,423,836 shares, reserved for them, with a minimum ticket of AED1 million (about $272,000), and book-building will run through this tranche alone to set the price.

Eligible employees of Dubai Investments and its subsidiaries can apply for 1%, or 17,352,433 shares, and existing Dubai Investments shareholders for 2%, or 34,704,866 shares. Investors need to own Dubai Investments shares by the 26 October cut-off, ahead of a record date of 28 October.

Citigroup Global Markets, Emirates NBD Capital and HSBC Bank Middle East are the joint global coordinators. Joint bookrunners are ADCB, Arqaam Capital, Dubai Islamic Bank and EFG Hermes. Emirates NBD is the lead receiving bank and xCube LLC will act as stabilisation manager for up to 30 days after listing, while Dubai Investments and DIP Holding are bound by a 180-day lock-up.

Dividends anchor the pitch

The DIP Holding IPO pitch is built on dividends. The company plans to distribute AED700 million (about $190.6 million) for 2026, not including an AED100 million pre-IPO dividend paid to Dubai Investments in September. It intends to lift that to AED725 million (about $197.4 million) for 2027 and AED750 million (about $204.2 million) for 2028, and to pay at least the 2028 level from 2029 onwards.

Dividends will be paid semi-annually. The first post-IPO payment of AED350 million is planned for April 2027 and covers the whole second half of 2026, so investors who buy in the offering receive a dividend for that entire period. Over three years the commitment adds up to around $592 million.

The numbers are solid rather than spectacular. Revenue came in at AED960 million in 2025, up 7.6% on 2024, with adjusted EBITDA of AED678 million and profit of AED1.09 billion, up 14.2%. In the first half of 2026 revenue grew to AED492 million, adjusted EBITDA was AED355 million at a 72% margin and profit rose 6.1% to AED444 million, with cash conversion of 97%.

What DIP Holding owns

Dubai Investments Park is a master-planned development of about 23 million square metres, including 17.1 million square metres of gross leasable land held under a 99-year headlease signed with the Government of Dubai in 1999. It has approximately 1,000 tenants, around 5,700 sub-leases and more than 150,000 residents across its logistics, industrial, commercial and residential zones.

Occupancy was 99.9% as at 30 June 2026, and the company says it has kept average ground lease occupancy at about 98% since 2020. Repricing is the growth driver: 0.8 million square metres had been repriced at an average increase of roughly 28% by the end of June, and a further 10.7 million square metres, or 86% of the ground rent portfolio, becomes eligible for contractual repricing between the second half of 2026 and 2030.

Khalid Jassim Bin Kalban, chairman of DIP Holding, said the listing was “a natural next step” in a journey that began more than 25 years ago. Omar Al Mesmar, chief executive, said the IPO “marks an important milestone” for the company.

Why it matters

The deal ends a long gap between new share issues in Dubai and will show how much demand there is for UAE-listed shares after a rough year. Kamco Invest has reported record foreign outflows from GCC stocks in the third quarter, so a well-received DIP Holding IPO would suggest yield-hungry investors are ready to come back for the right asset. Like other recent Dubai share sales, it leans heavily on a large dividend component.

By selling part of its biggest holding, Dubai Investments realises some value while keeping an 80% stake and control. The DFM-listed group has interests in property, manufacturing and financial services, and the proceeds give it cash to deploy at a time when developers such as Emaar are reporting record sales backlogs.

It is all quite swift from here. The price range is released on 27 October, books close on 3 November, the final price follows on 4 November and retail allocations are finalised on 10 November, with trading expected on 11 November.