Author: Gordon Platt
DR NEWS
 
 
The amount of capital raised in initial public offerings of companies tapping global markets through the issuance of depositary receipts fell 79% in the first half of 2008 to $3.6 billion, according to a report by Citi. Some 87% of the first-half total was accounted for by the five biggest IPOs.

The largest IPO using DRs in the first half was by Kuwait-based Global Investment House, which raised $1.15 billion. Commercial Bank of Qatar was second, with $691 million, followed by GlobalTrans Investment, a railroad freight services and logistics provider based in Russia, with $494 million. Dubai-based interior contractor Depa raised $420 million, and Ukraine-based poultry producer MHP raised $371 million.

Citi hosted a DR roundtable in Dubai in late June. Adam Key, director for Citi’s equity capital markets in the Middle East, told the meeting that the growth in the region’s capital markets and the increasing internationalization of new equity transactions shows that investors’ perception of the Middle East is shifting from viewing the region as a source of capital to considering it as a destination for capital.

Meanwhile, The Bank of New York Mellon introduced a new index comprising a select group of DRs from companies based in Russia. The index includes DRs trading on the London Stock Exchange, as well as American depositary receipts trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.
 
 
Gordon Platt