Press Releases

Abu Dhabi, March 12, 2011 – The Founders Committee of Insurance House announced the successful ‎completion of the company’s IPO. An overall share capital of 120 million ‎dirham has been collected in full. ‎

Mohammed Abdulla Alqubaisi, Chairman of Insurance House Founders ‎‎Committee said: "The IPO of Insurance House has broken the deadlock in ‎the struggling UAE IPO market since more than two and a half years, and ‎achieved outstanding success under very difficult circumstances caused by ‎the political situation and the region's economic recession, in addition to ‎the sharp downturn in the stock market during the subscription period". ‎

Alqubaisi added: "The coverage of this IPO reflects the confidence of a ‎significant segment of investors in our project, and we are committed to ‎be extremely careful about their interests and the success of this new ‎company". ‎ ‎ ‎"We have been working for several months to build the infrastructure of ‎the company, and attracted a distinguished management team to manage ‎the company, also by the end of April, we will finish all the works required ‎for the establishment of the company.

In addition to human resources, ‎company's offices have been rented and are being prepared, whereas the ‎company's branch network will be spread over Abu Dhabi, Dubai and ‎Sharjah. We have finalized the selection of an IT company, and ‎implementation of a selected information system ‎is underway with ‎collaboration of a team from Insurance House for the application of that ‎system”, continued Alqubaisi. ‎ ‎“All systems, policies and internal procedures are being finalized to enable ‎the initiation of the company’s operations on a professional basis from the ‎moment of inception, additionally, all files processing for the Company's ‎licensing requirements related to official authorities are under process. ‎

Insurance House’s management is currently focused on the strategies and ‎marketing plans in preparation to attract the largest volume of business ‎from the first day of operations. All this is being handled through close ‎cooperation between the Management Team of Insurance House and ‎Finance House which holds up to 36% of the new company”, concluded ‎Alqubaisi.‎ ‎

This IPO has uncovered new leaders in the stock markets, where national ‎institutions have proven their ability to lead such projects without any ‎participation of foreign institutions. This has been well demonstrated by FH ‎Capital, the ‎investment banking subsidiary of Finance House, through its ‎merits and ability to successfully lead the IPO in the most difficult ‎circumstances. In addition the IPO manager, Mashreq Bank, demonstrated ‎outstanding leading role in the IPOs market, reemphasizing its ability to ‎attract investors. ‎ ‎ The founders committee has commended the people in charge of the UAE ‎Insurance Authority and the Securities and Commodities Authority and ‎Department of Economic Development in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi for their ‎support which has contributed immensely to the success of this IPO.

‎ ‎ Despite the large turnout of the various segments of individual investors ‎and companies and institutions of the private sector, a total absence of the ‎investment arms of the public sector was noted, where none of the pension ‎funds or sovereign investment funds or any institution or any wholly or ‎partially owned governmental investment arm have participated in this ‎IPO. ‎ ‎ It is known that the IPO was limited to UAE Nationals, however the ‎company intends to open up its shareholding to foreign ‎ownership as soon ‎as the shares are listed in the Market; the company is currently completing ‎the allocation procedures that will be finalized on March 23, 2011. ‎Insurance House also plans to hold its EGM within ten days from that date, ‎as a prelude to finalizing the establishment of the company and listing on ‎the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.