Silver Lake, IHC come aboard as anchor investors in Bayanat IPO

US-based private equity firm Silver Lake and UAE investment firm International Holding Company (IHC) are coming on board as anchor investors for Abu Dhabi-based geospatial solutions firm Bayanat AI PLC’s initial public offering.

Bayanat, which is a part of the AI and healthcare-focused G42 group, is the first artificial intelligence firm to list on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) as the country’s stock market sees an IPO boom.

The company will list 22.2% of its shares on the ADX via its AED628 million ($171 million) IPO. Following the IPO, 77% shareholding will be held by Group 42 Holding Ltd.

The subscription period for the IPO started today and will close on October 25. The tech company has priced its shares at AED1.1 apiece.

Just over 6% of the total offer is open to retail investors. The company said the portion reserved for institutional investors had been fully subscribed. Institutional investors will hold around 15.6% shares of the company. It is, however, unclear in what ratio the two marquee investors have acquired Bayanat shares.

This will be the first investment by Silver Lake into a company listed on the ADX. Silver Lake, which formed a partnership with Abu Dhabi wealth fund Mubadala two years ago, manages assets in excess of $92 billion.

This will also be one of the biggest investments yet by IHC into an AI-focussed company. The investment major was founded in 1998 in order to diversify the non-oil and gas investments of the country and currently manages assets of the order of AED 619 billion.

IHC had also invested in the previous Abu Dhabi IPO, from Burjeel Holdings in which it holds a 15% stake.

Bayanat reported revenue of AED366.7 million for the fiscal year 2021, up 48% from AED247.8 million for 2020. Its gross margin was 48% in 2021, compared with 46% in 2020, while EBITDA increased from AED76.7 million in 2020 to AED104.7 million in 2021.

Revenue for the nine-month period ended September 30 reached AED490.6 million, doubling from a year earlier. EBITDA jumped 167% to AED157.5 million.