<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/11/19/talabat-ipo/" target="_blank">Talabat Holding</a>, the Middle Eastern unit of Germany-based food delivery platform Delivery Hero, has increased the size of its initial public offering on the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/05/01/dfm-unveils-new-platform-to-help-companies-raise-money/" target="_blank">Dubai Financial Market</a> to 20 per cent from 15 per cent, amid “significant” demand from regional and international investors. The company will now offer 4,657,648,125 shares, a fifth of its total issued share capital, from the previously announced 3,493,236,093 shares, Talabat said on Wednesday. The offer price of between Dh1.50 ($0.41) and Dh1.60 per share remains unchanged, meaning the company could raise up to Dh7.5 billion. At the upper end of the price range, Talabat would have a market value of about Dh37.3 billion, it said. The IPO subscription period also remains unchanged and will close on Wednesday for UAE retail investors and on Thursday for professional investors. The final offer price, which will be determined through a book-building process, will be announced on Friday. Shares are expected to begin trading on the DFM on December 10. “The decision to increase the size of the offering has been taken on the back of a number of sizeable anchor orders from global long-only and technology sector investors, including several that are investing for the first time on the DFM,” the company said. Talabat, which offers delivery of food, groceries and convenience retail, has operations in the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Oman, Jordan and Iraq. In September, its platform had more than six million active customers, more than 65,000 participating restaurants, other groceries and retail vendors. It also had about 119,000 riders. The proceeds of the IPO will be used by Delivery Hero for “general corporate purposes and to further optimise its capital structure”, the company previously said. Post-listing, Talabat plans to pay a minimum dividend of about $100 million in April next year for the fourth quarter of this year. It will pay $400 million in two instalments in October next year and April 2026 for the financial results of 2025, the company said in September. Frankfurt-listed and Berlin-based Delivery Hero will retain a majority interest in Talabat. The IPO comes amid a <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/05/20/alef-education-plans-to-list-20-of-shares-in-abu-dhabi-ipo/" target="_blank">listing boom </a>in the Emirates. Talabat's intention to list follows UAE retail major <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/11/04/lulu-ipo-retailer-boosts-size-of-offering-to-30-on-strong-demand/" target="_blank">Lulu Group</a>'s successful IPO to raise $1.72 billion, the country's largest listing so far this year. A string of other deals this year in the UAE came from ADNH Catering, a unit of Abu Dhabi National Hotels, which raised $235.2 million, NMDC Energy, a unit of Abu Dhabi contractor <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2023/10/12/abu-dhabis-nmdc-has-eyes-on-all-active-markets-amid-expansion-plans/" target="_blank">National Marine Dredging Company</a>, raising $877 million, and Alef Education, which raised $515 million. The DFM, over the past few years, has also featured substantial listing activity. Parking operator <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/03/21/parkin-surges-30-on-dfm-trading-debut/" target="_blank">Parkin was the first to tap into UAE capital markets</a>, while retailer <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/05/09/spinneys-shares-up-more-than-9-as-it-starts-trading-on-the-dubai-financial-market/" target="_blank">Spinney's was the last to list its shares</a> on the DFM. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/03/05/parkin-ipo-dubai-company-could-raise-430-million-in-dfm-listing/" target="_blank">Companies in Dubai </a>raised Dh34.5 billion through<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/01/08/mbc-group-ipo-shares-rise-30-in-tadawul-trading-debut/" target="_blank"> selling shares </a>in the past three years, with aggregate investor demand for those listings reaching more than Dh1 trillion, the Dubai Securities and Exchange Higher Committee <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/03/21/parkin-surges-30-on-dfm-trading-debut/" target="_blank">said in March.</a> <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/markets/2024/11/18/uae-stock-markets-hit-1-trillion-for-the-first-time-boosted-by-ipos/" target="_blank">UAE stock markets</a> have hit $1 trillion in market capitalisation, primarily driven by IPOs as well as strong earnings, according to data compiled by <i>Bloomberg</i>. The combined market capitalisation of the UAE's two stock exchanges – ADX and DFM – exceeds that of Milan or Madrid. While significantly smaller than Saudi Arabia's Tadawul, the UAE's market is larger than most other emerging markets, except for a few like India and China, the data shows.