The Dubai government is considering an initial public offering of Emirates airline, the flagship carrier's president Tim Clark said on Monday, as authorities work to boost activity on the local stock market.
The emirate plans to list 10 state-backed companies on its stock exchange and set up a 2 billion dirham $545 million market maker fund to encourage trading activity.
There has been talk about it. Clark said in an interview for the upcoming Reuters Next conference that there was a bit more flesh on the whole subject than there has been in the past.
I'm waiting for instructions as to how this will affect the Emirates Group. What the government of Dubai decides to do. I would basically do as I am bid, as long as I'm up to them. Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said earlier this month that it was possible to list the carrier or its subsidiaries.
During the coronaviruses epidemic, governments have pumped billions of dollars into airlines, and state-owned Emirates received around $3.8 billion in equity injections from Dubai, including $2 billion disclosed last year.
The airline posted a loss of 5.8 billion dirham $1.6 billion for the month of April-September, down from a 12.6 billion dirham loss for the same period last year.
Clark said he doesn't expect more government support over the next year, as long as the new variant of the coronaviruses doesn't cause too much disruption.
We are restoring our cash position at a steady pace. It is unlikely that it will be achieved, despite the Omicron variant and its effects. If it's not as bad as people think it may be, then we see no more recourse to the owner putting equity into the business.
Clark said Emirates would still suffer a loss this year, but it would be much smaller than in the previous 12 months. He said the airline would break even or make a profit in the year 2022.
Over the last six, seven weeks, we've been profitable, and I am very pleased to say that we've returned to profitability.