UAE Phone Operators Surge on Plan to Raise Foreign Ownership
Bloomberg 1/19/2021 Abbas Al Lawati and Filipe Pacheco
(Bloomberg) The two main phone operators in the United Arab Emirates surged after saying they may raise limits on foreign ownership, joining others in the region seeking to attract more overseas investment.
Etisalat and Du both rose as much as 15% shortly after the open in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the maximum allowed by the exchanges. Etisalat climbed to a record high, while Du traded at the highest level since 2016. The shares trimmed gains to 11% as of 11:15 a.m. in the UAE.
A higher cap on foreign ownership will allow index providers such as MSCI Inc. and FTSE Russell to consider an increase of the stock’s weight in emerging-market equities benchmarks, triggering passive inflows.
UAE Phone Operators Surge on Plan to Raise Foreign Ownership
Bloomberg 1/19/2021 Abbas Al Lawati and Filipe Pacheco
(Bloomberg) The two main phone operators in the United Arab Emirates surged after saying they may raise limits on foreign ownership, joining others in the region seeking to attract more overseas investment.
Etisalat and Du both rose as much as 15% shortly after the open in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the maximum allowed by the exchanges. Etisalat climbed to a record high, while Du traded at the highest level since 2016. The shares trimmed gains to 11% as of 11:15 a.m. in the UAE.
A higher cap on foreign ownership will allow index providers such as MSCI Inc. and FTSE Russell to consider an increase of the stock’s weight in emerging-market equities benchmarks, triggering passive inflows.
Winners all
In the UAE s stock universe, 50 of the 126 listed stocks posted positive returns. The Top 5 performers were International Holdings Co. (up 577 per cent), Gulfa Mineral Water (304 per cent), Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (aka TAQA, and with a gain of 206 per cent), Dubai Islamic Insurance (138 per cent) and Arkan Building Materials (110 per cent).
The relentless pace of its acquisitions supported International Holdings Co. s share rally. TAQA benefitted from its merger with Abu Dhabi Power that made it the premier utility company in the UAE. Stocks that suffered the largest declines last year were DXB Entertainments (52 per cent), Arabtec Holding (59 per cent) and Emirates REIT (69 per cent).
DUBAI: The Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) on Tuesday announced it has secured funding to build the world’s largest solar power plant.
The successful financial closing of Al-Dhafra Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Independent Power Producer (IPP) project was achieved alongside TAQA’s partners Masdar, EDF Renewables and JinkoPower.
The plant will be located around 35km from Abu Dhabi city, will have capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW) and will supply power to the Emirates Water and Electricity Co. (EWEC).
When complete, Al-Dhafra Solar PV IPP will be the world’s largest single-site solar power plant, using approximately 4 million solar panels to generate enough electricity for approximately 160,000 homes across the UAE.