DUBAI: UAE-based exchange house Al Ansari Financial Services said on Thursday it plans to float 10 percent of the company on the Dubai Financial Market through an initial public offering, according to Reuters. The subscription period for the offering of 750 million shares will run between March 16 and March 24, and the shares are expected to be listed on the exchange on or around April 6, the company said in a statement. The Middle East bucked global trends last year to raise some $21.9 billion through IPOs, according to Dealogic. That was more than half the total for the wider Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Last week, state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. raised about $2.5 billion from an IPO of its gas business. Al Ansari said Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, EFG Hermes UAE and Emirates NBD Capital were mandated as joint global coordinators for the IPO. The company that began as a family business in 1966 is one of the region’s largest exchange businesses. As of end-2022, it ran 231 physical branches and employed 4,123 people. It made 595 million dirhams ($162.01 million) in net profit last year, up from 491 million dirhams in 2021. Operating income rose to 1.15 billion dirhams from 988 million dirhams in 2021. Al Ansari is targeting a minimum dividend of 600 million dirhams for 2023, to be paid out in October and in April next year. “A minimum dividend pay-out ratio of at least 70 percent of the net profit generated (paid semi-annually) is expected going forward,” the company said. It continues to evaluate accretive investment opportunities for growth, but could pay a dividend higher than the minimum in the absence of suitable opportunities, Al Ansari said. The Emirates Investment Authority, the UAE’s only federal sovereign wealth fund, has the right to subscribe to up to 5 percent of the offering, Al Ansari added.