KFC, Pizza Hut holding firm Americana Restaurants lists on MSCI UAE Index

Image credit: WAM

Americana Restaurants, the largest out-of-home dining and quick service restaurant (QSR) operator in the Middle East & North Africa and Kazakhstan, announced that it has been included in the MSCI UAE Index, as per state news agency WAM.

The index is widely recognised as an important benchmark for investment decision-making by investors in emerging markets including regional markets.

Americana Restaurants included in MSCI #UAE Index#WamNewshttps://t.co/CxDcgTqKZ2 pic.twitter.com/w7i8IYamZm

— WAM English (@WAMNEWS_ENG) June 2, 2023

Americana Restaurants’ inclusion in these indices follows its historic concurrent dual listing on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul), which raised $1.8 bn in gross proceeds.

It was the region’s first concurrent dual listing, the offering generated significant local and international investor demand.

Only 2 days left to subscribe to the Americana Restaurants IPO pic.twitter.com/znqNwTOEWK

— Americana Restaurants (@RestAmericana) November 19, 2022

Americana Restaurants has 2,183 restaurants in its portfolio and is present across 12 countries in Middle East, North Africa and Kazakhstan. The QSR operator’s portfolio includes a range of global brands, such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardee’s, Krispy Kreme, Peet’s Coffee, Wimpy, TGI Friday’s, Costa Coffee and Baskin Robbins.

MSCI UAE Index

As a constituent of the MSCI UAE Index, Americana Restaurants is now also a constituent of all regional and composite MSCI equity indices containing the UAE. These indices include the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index (IMI) and MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI), the provider’s flagship global equity index, designed to represent performance of the full opportunity set of large- and mid-cap stocks across 23 developed and 24 emerging markets.

The MSCI UAE Index, which is a component of the MSCI EEMEA Index, is designed to measure the performance of large and mid-cap segments of the UAE equity market. Index inclusion is typically followed by increased liquidity for a company’s shares and can help to attract more regional and global institutional and index-tracking investors, including those with a focus on emerging market equities.

Meeting the necessary market capitalisation, free float-adjusted market capitalisation and liquidity requirements criteria less than six months after listing is a clear indication of Americana Restaurants’ robust performance and unique value proposition, which has resonated with a global institutional investor base, as per a statement by the QSR operator.