Dubai Investments Plans IPO of Emicool Unit in Fourth Quarter

(Bloomberg) -- Dubai Investments PJSC plans to sell shares in its cooling unit Emicool in the fourth quarter and aims to start a 3-billion-dirham ($817 million) real estate investment trust as it seeks to boost profit.

Chief Executive Officer Khalid Bin Kalban told Bloomberg Television that Al Mal Capital PSC, majority-owned by DIC, is advising the company on the planned initial public offering and that more banks will be hired. The process will hopefully value Emicool, formally called Emirates District Cooling LLC, at between 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion dirhams, he said.

Dubai Investment’s businesses range from real estate to glass production. The company last month bought Union Properties PJSC’s entire stake in Emicool for 500 million dirhams, making it its sole owner. Dubai Investments may sell 30 percent of its stake in the IPO of Emicool, which provides cooling services to hundreds of homes and offices in areas such as Dubai Investments Park and Motor City, Bin Kalban had said in 2016.

“Emicool will go through a transition and we’ll make one acquisition in the second quarter, perhaps two depending on circumstances,” he said on Sunday. “We’re hoping to go for a private placement in the third quarter and then an IPO.”

Dubai Investments on Sunday reported an 18 percent decline in full-year profit to 1 billion dirhams, as some transactions scheduled for 2017 were delayed to this year, Bin Kalban said. The first quarter of 2018 will be much stronger than the last three months of last year, with earnings expected to grow as much as 25 percent, he said.

The decline in profit in 2017, though, would probably mean that dividends for the year will remain the same as in the preceding year, he said. DIC paid a dividend of 11 fils a share in 2017 as well as a 5 percent bonus.

Bin Kalban said Dubai Investments also plans to list its real estate investment trust either on Nasdaq Dubai or Dubai Financial Market, possibly this year. The company has real estate projects valued at 9 billion dirhams underway, of which 5 billion dirhams of property is under construction and the rest in tender, design stage or awaiting approvals.

To contact the reporters on this story: Yousef Gamal El-Din in Dubai at ygamaleldin@bloomberg.net, Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Brian Wingfield

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