Daman Investments postpones IPO

Daman, an investment management company in Dubai, announced that it will postpone IPO (initial public offer). The reason Daman cited is a liquidity concern.

In June, the investment company had to sell over 22% of its shares through non-public offering. Daman’s value then was said to be around $120 million. The company also announced that it had plans to sell shares to the public.

In 2009, Daman Investments scheduled the IPO for this year. That was due to the fact that the company needed some time to get ready for the public listing.

However, from Daman stated that now was not the right time for IPO because the primary market was not likely to be active.

After the financial crisis, the IPO market in UAE is struggling. That is due mainly to the unstable market, falling demand and low prices of stock.

Three years ago, Daman Investments announced that it had a new strategic investor. After that it was reported that 100 million dirhams will be invested in the company. Daman assured the public that it is working hard to find another 200 million in investments.

Nevertheless, the company’s estimated cost was said to be nearly 850 million dirhams. That is two times its present valuation. That is a clear indicator that the global financial crisis did some damage to UAE investment companies.

Daman doesn’t plan to give up the fight to find investments. Furthermore, the company will soon do another fund-raising where it will try to sell 800,000 shares. It is expected that the second round will collect more money than the first one.

The benchmark index of Dubai has increased with 15%. However, the number of shares transacted per a day is still at a lower level compared to 2008.

Recently one of the biggest conglomerates in Dubai, Al Habtoor Group informed that it wants to raise about $1.6 billion in an initial public offer on the Nasdaq Dubai bourse in 2013.