ABU DHABI: State oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) on Friday set the final price for its initial public offering, valuing the company at about $50 billion after drawing record demand. It will become Abu Dhabi’s largest listed company.

ADNOC Gas’ share price was set at 2.37 dirhams per share, near the top end of the price range that was set at 2.25 to 2.43 dirhams a share, ADNOC said in a statement.

Proceeds from the IPO came to roughly $2.5 billion out of an order book that topped $124 billion, ADNOC said. That exceeded demand for Saudi oil giant Aramco’s 2019 IPO, which raised $25.6 billion and remains the world’s largest.

The Middle East bucked global trends last year to raise some $21.9 billion through IPOs, according to Dealogic. That was more than half the total for the wider Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

ADNOC last week said it would increase the stake offered to investors to 5% from 4% due to strong demand for the deal, Abu Dhabi’s largest IPO. ADNOC Gas is expected to begin trading on March 13.

ADNOC Group Chief Executive Officer Khaled Al Zaabi said the strong interest in the IPO highlighted the “attractiveness of ADNOC’s world-class and low-carbon intensity energy asset base” and Abu Dhabi as a destination for global capital.

ADNOC gas business stake sale raised to 5%

The group has raised billions of dollars from listing businesses like ADNOC Drilling and Fertiglobe, as well as from selling stakes in its network of gas and oil pipelines.

It also plans to float its logistics and services unit.