Dubai shisha maker targets May listing on US Nasdaq

• Hookah firm AIR owns Al Fakher
• Spac merger nears completion
• Conflict is disrupting supply chains

AIR, the Dubai owner of hookah tobacco brand Al Fakher, is pressing ahead with plans to list on the Nasdaq US stock market as early as next month, despite global uncertainty stemming from the Iran conflict.

The company, formally known as Advanced Inhalation Rituals, has spent the past 18 months preparing to list through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners III, a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) backed by American financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

A Spac is a listed shell company set up to merge with a private firm and take it public.

Chief executive Stuart Brazier told AGBI the group submitted its second public F-4 filing – used for disclosures or responses to regulator comments on the initial filing – to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in late March. The filing is required for non-US companies pursuing a merger or listing in the US.

If approved, the deal will be put to a shareholder vote within 20 days. “Then we’ll be ready to go,” Brazier said. “Hopefully this will close in the first half of May.”

The combined entity, AIR Global Limited, is expected to have an enterprise value of $1.75 billion.

After a period of relative obscurity around the world, Spacs were most popular during the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis. They had a resurgence in the early 2020s, with a record number of Spac IPOs and acquisitions, before falling off in the middle of the decade.

Spacs gained mainstream attention with the highly publicised 2024 acquisition that took public Donald Trump’s media company, Trump Media & Technology Group. 

Al Fakher, which produces flavoured hookah tobacco, said it had about 14 million consumers worldwide as of 2024. Its parent company reported net revenue of $400 million in 2025, up 6 percent year on year, with profit rising to $47 million from $34 million in 2024. The global shisha market is estimated to be worth up to $20 billion.

AIR operates manufacturing facilities in the UAE as well as in Poland, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. While production has not been affected by the conflict, Brazier said supply chains have been disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has increased costs.

Further reading:

• Dubai shisha maker AIR agrees to Nasdaq listing
• Bring back smoking, say Jordan restaurateurs
• Shisha smokers turn to healthier alternatives

The company, which sells to 90 markets throughout the world, has shifted some shipments to overland routes and via Jeddah port. Brazier said AIR is working with partners to share the additional burden, while also looking to cut costs elsewhere and pass on some increases to consumers where possible without hitting demand.

But, with growth outside the UAE continuing in markets such as the US, Europe and Saudi Arabia, he remains bullish for the rest of 2026. “If I look forward for the whole year, I’m not changing my view of what we can achieve this year,” he said. 

“At times of stress, in the same way that maybe people drink a little more Scotch, they might enjoy a few more shishas as well.”