Saudi’s Ataa Educational to raise SAR348m in IPO

Saudi’s Ataa Educational will raise SAR348m ($93m) after its initial public offering (IPO) was priced at the top end of its price range, two sources familiar with the deal told Reuters.

Riyadh has been encouraging more family-owned companies to list on the domestic stock market, the region’s biggest bourse, in a bid to deepen Saudi Arabia’s capital markets as part of reforms aimed at reducing the kingdom’s reliance on oil revenue.

Ataa Educational, which owns and operates national and international schools in Saudi Arabia, will float 12 million shares, representing 30 per cent of its SAR400m capital.

“The book building closed on Monday and the IPO was priced at the top end of the range at SAR29,” said one source.

“This values the company at $310m, or SAR1.16bn,” he added.

The offering was two times oversubscribed by institutional investors. Demand from non-Saudi, GCC, international and qualified foreign investors accounted for more than third of the offering size, the sources said.

The retail tranche of the offering will start on July 14 and last for five days.

HSBC Saudi Arabia is the sole financial advisor, lead underwriter and bookrunner for the offering.

The Saudi stock market is up 13.8 per cent so far this year, one of the best performing in the Middle East, as it entered global emerging market benchmarks.

The kingdom is seeing a revival in IPOs, earlier this year Saudi mall operator Arabian Centres raised SAR2.47bn in a share sale.