Why UAE investors can always expect more from ‘safe’ stocks

The near instant oversubscription of the LuLu Retail IPO came as little surprise to industry observers, given the groundswell of interest ever since its first intention to float announcement was made months ago.

Given the price range, it will be interesting to see whether the follow-through in the secondary markets will transpire (by all indications it should). But there is little doubt that LuLu will be a fundamental holding of any core emerging markets portfolio in the months ahead, in the way that Salik and Parkin. The latter are by far the highest performers of the DFM IPO bandwagon, despite their relatively ‘boring’ business models.