“Bloomberg” quoted informed sources as saying that the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority “Dewa” is considering increasing the percentage of its annual dividends by three times to 6.2 billion dirhams ($1.69 billion) after listing its shares in the first half of this year. This is a significant increase over the dividends paid out to shareholders last year, which amounted to two billion dirhams. The company distributed 1.5 billion dirhams to shareholders in 2020, and 4.5 billion dirhams in 2019.
The authority began meeting with investors to attract interest in what will be one of the largest listings in Dubai. The IPO is expected to give DEWA a valuation of up to $25 billion, and the listing is expected by April.
DEWA raised 10 billion dirhams of facilities in the first quarter to finance pre-IPO dividends and improve its capital structure, according to the presentation.
The company said in the presentation that consolidated revenues rose 6% to 23.8 billion dirhams in 2021, expecting a growth of 12% to 12.5% this year, supported by the growth in the “Empower” unit.
The compound annual growth rate of revenue after 2022 is expected to range between 3% and 3.5%. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority estimates that the EBITDA margin will reach 56 percent in 2023.
It is expected that capital expenditures for the next five years until 2026 will be about 40 billion dirhams, including about 15 billion this year 2022 and 10 billion in 2023. (Bloomberg)