The UAE’s Dana Gas closed a 2.1 billion dirham ($560 million) initial public offering after attracting so much interest from Gulf investors that the incoming rush of funds affected the Saudi riyal.

Bankers said institutional investors, mainly from the Gulf Arab states, subscribed to as much as 200 times the amount on offer.
The oil-fuelled boom has attracted a wave of IPOs and rights issues in the Gulf.
Such was the demand for the IPO that scuffles broke out at banks and travel agents struggled to cope with bookings of flights into the UAE, the only country with banks authorised to receive subscriptions. Newspapers said many investors were Saudis. Dana Gas was set up by a group of energy companies in the UAE. The IPO represented 34.33 per cent of the firm’s capital of six billion dirhams, with shares priced at one dirham each.
Dana Gas, which will start with gas supply, transportation, processing and marketing assets, has said it plans to expand in the Gulf and wider Middle East into upstream exploration and production and into downstream gas-related industries.
Steve Brice, an economist at Standard Chartered in Dubai, said the flow of money to the UAE from Saudi Arabia had caused the biggest drop in the Saudi riyal since the 1998 Asian crisis, although actual moves in the currency were tiny.
“We haven’t seen in this market so many people coming in with applications before,” said Hassan Abas, vice-president of corporate and commercial banking at Mashreqbank, one of the receiving banks.