Dubai-based Emaar Properties has confirmed the pricing of the initial sale of shares in its shopping malls unit at AED2.90 per ordinary share, the higher end of the original proposed range.

The value of ordinary shares sold by the property developer totals AED5.8bn ($1.6bn), making it one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) to be launched in Dubai and the wider Gulf region for a number of years.  

According to a bourse filing, the IPO’s order book was 30-times oversubscribed for the institutional tranche and more than 20-times oversubscribed for the individual tranche.

Final allocations were approximately 70 per cent to institutional investors and 30 per cent to individual investors. In total, there were more than 470 orders in the institutional order book.

Emaar sold 15.4 per cent of its mall unit in the IPO and intends to distribute AED5.3bn ($1.44bn) of the sales proceedings as a shareholder dividend.

The listing and trading of the shares are expected to start on 2 October on the Dubai Financial Exchange, the emirate’s main exchange. 

Joint global coordinators of the offering are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Joint bookrunners are EFG Hermes UAE, Emirates Financial Services, HSBC Middle East and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

Emaar’s mall business comprises four shopping malls, including Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping mall by total area, 30 community shopping centres and other retail outlets.