Parkin IPO pops 35% on debut Dubai listing

Shares in Dubai’s newest listing, Parkin, were up more than 35 per cent on Thursday amid a strong debut on the local bourse.

The shares were listed at Dhs2.10 on Thursday morning. By the end of Thursday, Parkin’s price soared to Dhs2.84, putting the company’s market capitalisation at Dhs8.5bn. There were over 12,000 trades in the shares on its debut Thursday.

The Dubai Investment Fund currently has a 75 per cent stake in the company, while the remaining 25 per cent has been floated on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).

Parkin is the first IPO of 2024 in the UAE. It was spun out from the parking unit of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). Meanwhile, the company has also published its carve-out financial statements on the DFM, of which a set of the documents have been signed off by auditors PwC.

As a part of these documents, an income statement indicates that for the 12 months ended December 2023, the RTA’s parking division brought in total revenues of Dhs779m.

After expenses and impairments, the parking unit recorded Dhs394m in total comprehensive income for the year. Meanwhile, Parkin’s balance sheet indicates that its fixed assets amount to Dhs61m.

READ MORE: Parkin’s $429m IPO oversubscribed 165 times

Dubai’s largest parking provider

Amid its listing on DFM, Parkin says it is the largest provider of paid public parking facilities and services in Dubai, operating approximately 197,000 paid parking spaces with a “91 per cent market leading share of the total public on-street and off-street paid parking sector”.

Parkin also has a 49-year concession agreement with the RTA to exclusively operate this portfolio of public on-street and off-street parking which the company says includes 175,000 spaces across 85 locations, as well as public multi-storey car parking facilities that consist of 4,000 spaces across nine locations.

Parkin says it also operates certain “private developer-owned parking facilities through partnership agreements across the Emirate.”

This in particular consists of 18,000 spaces across 7 locations.

Law enforcement helps bring in additional revenue, with the company saying that last year there were 1.3 million fines issued, with a 99 per cent collection rate. About 139,000 permits or seasonal tickets were issued last year as well. The company is further set to generate revenue from parking reservations and other commercial activities.

“By deploying state of the art digital payment solutions and intelligent parking management systems that utilise artificial intelligence and big data analysis, Parkin’s 3.6m unique customers successfully conducted 118m parking transactions during 2023, with a customer satisfaction rate of over 95 per cent,” says a market note on DFM. 

Dubai’s parking operations were established in 1995 under the Dubai Municipality, before becoming part of the RTA in 2005. In December 2023, Parkin Company PJSC was established through the issuance of Law No. 30 of 2023.