Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority has approved Riyadh Cables Group’s application to register and offer 33 million shares for public subscription, according to a statement released by the Saudi stock exchange. The shares to be offered represent 22% of Riyadh Cables’ total shares, the authority said, adding that the prospectus of the telecommunications cables manufacturing firm will be published within sufficient time prior to the start of the subscription period.
Riyadh Cables is seeking to raise about $400 million from an initial public offering (IPO) and is working with Riyad Capital and Himmah Capital on the proposed listing that could come as soon as this year, Bloomberg reported last week, citing sources.
Riyadh Cables, which was founded in 1984 and majority-owned by Saudi Arabia’s Al Zaim family, has factories in the kingdom, the UAE, and Iraq. It had initially planned a domestic IPO in 2015, when the country opened its stock market to international investors. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region saw 21 IPOs raise proceeds of $7.9 billion last year, a 133% increase in total issuances and a 325% rise in total proceeds compared to 2020, according to the EY MENA IPO Eye Q4 2021 report released in March.
Saudi saw the largest IPO in MENA with the International Company for Water and Power Projects (ACWA Power Co) which raised $1.2 billion. In the fourth quarter alone, the kingdom’s main market, Tadawul, saw five IPOs, with a further two on the Nomu parallel market.
The second largest IPO in the region in terms of value in 2021 was in the energy sector with the ADNOC Drilling Company securing $1.1 billion of proceeds in the fourth quarter on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).
