Dubai is set to put its public water and power utility, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), under public scrutiny through an IPO intended to bring life to the emirate's stagnant stock exchange. The emirate confirmed this month that it would be carrying out an IPO in the near future for the utility, which serves 3.5 million people in the emirate. It will be a rare chance for regional retail investors to gain access to water exposure. DEWA owns one of the world's largest portfolios of desalination plants, with a combined capacity of around 2.2 million m~3/d, largely clustered around its Jebel Ali facility (see picture, right). Compared to its regional neighbours, it has been historically reluctant to use PPPs for building new infrastructure, and so has retained full ownership and operation of all its desal plants built to date.
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