33,000 Saudi investors entered the UAE in the past 4 days. "Pandemonium gripped" banks as the investors - many accompanied by their families - sought to apply for the Dana Gas IPO.

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UPDATE. Tigerhawk picks up the story from here and adds some commentary on the "IPO riot factor".

MORE. Here's the Khaleej Times coverage. A few choice quotes:

"Carrying loads of cash, these investors have done deals worth several millions of riyals yesterday in Abu Dhabi," said an official at an exchange company. " We had not seen anything like this ever before. Exchange houses ran out of dirhams and there was no back-up from the banking system," he said. The result was the UAE dirham-riyal parity, which had been stable since long at SR97.50 to a UAE dirham, slipped to 96.00-96.50," a currency dealer said.
. . .
A banker said that the current euphoria will continue to build up, but the total size of the IPO subscription can be known only after the big investors jump on the bandwagon. Till then it is all guess work whether, the IPO will cross 100-times or not.

But the UAE investors are not very happy over the emerging situation, whereby their chances of getting a reasonable number of shares are diminishing with each passing day, with the arrival of Saudis and Qataris and other GCC nationals, said Mohammed Ali Yasin, a leading share broker.Yasin said that many investors have a valid point when they don't feel very happy over the situation." They will be happy if they managed to secure 0.5-1 per cent of the applied shares, a situation in which nobody wants to be, after investing a huge sum together with the cost of leverage", Mr Yasin said.

26 September. MORE:

The Dh2.06 billion DANA Gas public issue, the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever in the UAE, is expected to collect more than Dh250 billion, according to sources in the receiving banks.
. . .
“The banking sector is expected to provide up to Dh150 billion in leverage finance while the investors from the region are expected to commit more than Dh100 billion of their money in subscription,” said a senior executive with a bank.
. . .
“Five days into the IPO, indications from the market suggest that the issue could be oversubscribed between 150 to 200 times,” said P Krishnamurthy, an investment analyst.