Dubai’s Kanoo Group Sees Opportunities to Invest in India, China
Bloomberg- Kanoo Group is benefitting from a strong rebound in the United Arab Emirates’ economy.
Dubai-based conglomerate Kanoo Group is looking at opportunities to invest across the Middle East, and in India and China next year, tapping growing economies with strong returns, according to Chairman Mishal Kanoo.
The family-owned company, with interests spanning shipping, real estate, financial services and energy, sees potential in sectors including artificial intelligence and clean energy, Kanoo said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Friday. “Each country has a different industry that they are really good at.”
Kanoo Group, which is benefitting from a strong rebound in the United Arab Emirates’ economy and higher oil prices earlier this year, is also holding internal talks about whether to sell units of the business in an initial public offering.
“There are some benefits of going public because then there is more structure, more governance and more regulatory oversight,” he said. “On the other hand we also have issues we do as a family that we couldn’t do anymore and we’d have to be much more transparent, which a lot of families might not be ready for at this present time.”
If Kanoo Group were to go ahead with an offering, the company would likely sell shares division by division, he said. But, currently a share sale is unlikely, he said.
The Middle East has emerged as a hotspot for initial public offerings, buoyed by rising oil prices and investor inflows at the start of the year. More than $20 billion has been raised so far from share sales, putting the region on course for its second-best year on record “- eclipsed only by 2019, which saw Aramco’s $29.4 billion IPO, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
About Kanoo Group
Established in 1890, Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo (YBA Kanoo) started from a humble trading and shipping enterprise founded in Bahrain by Haji Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo. From Bahrain, the business spread to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s.
In 1967, Hamed Kanoo came from Saudi Arabia to the UAE to expand the family business. Having successfully established Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo (YBA Kanoo)’s operations in Khafji in the Kingdom, the company asked him to replicate the same in the UAE too. With only 5 people, including him, Hamed Kanoo put-up The Kanoo Group as a trade name in the UAE Map.
At present, The Kanoo Group operates in the UAE and Oman, with Mishal Hamed Kanoo serving as the Chairman, and over 1,200 employees working for its divisions.
The Kanoo family remained true to their early values. This adherence to ethics and beliefs made them an essential component of the regional business life.
After successfully establishing YBA Kanoo’s operations in Khafji in Saudi Arabia, late Hamed Kanoo was asked to conquer the UAE market as well. Hamed, along with 4 other members, successfully put the Kanoo name in the UAE Map in 1967—making him the Founding Father of The Kanoo Group.
One of the first industries that Kanoo excelled at was shipping. No one could have predicted that it would challenge the monopoly of long-established British companies and would become the largest regional shipping agency in the Middle East. Kanoo Shipping is one of the founders of S5 Agency World Ltd. and was the first Arab shipping agency in the region in 1911. At present, Kanoo Shipping operates in 20 countries and in all principal ports and offshore tanker loading terminals around the Arabian Peninsula, including Iraq. It handles 20,000 port calls every year, which covers all ports in the Suez to India range.
