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Reuters
Published
May 10, 2019
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Saudi mall operator Arabian Centres to raise $747 million after pricing IPO

By
Reuters
Published
May 10, 2019

Saudi mall operator Arabian Centres is set to raise as much as 2.8 billion riyals ($747 million) after pricing its initial public offering (IPO) at the bottom of its indicative range, according to a company document.


Arabian Centres owns 19 malls, making it the leading owner and operator of shopping malls in Saudi Arabia by total gross leasable area as of the end of 2018 - Reuters


That would make it one of the biggest IPOs in Saudi Arabia since National Commercial Bank raised $6 billion in 2014 and Saudi Ground Services raised $752 million in 2015, Refinitiv data showed.

The company priced its IPO at 26 riyals per share, the document said, confirming an earlier Reuters story, and compared with a price range of 26 to 33 riyals per share for the sale of 95 million shares.

The firm also plans to exercise an over-allotment option, increasing the deal size from 2.47 billion riyals to 2.8 billion riyals, equivalent to a stake of 22.7 percent.
The book-building process garnered an order-book of 3.1 billion riyals from public and private funds, overseas investors and other institutions, the document said.

The offering from Arabian Centres, majority-owned by Fawaz Alhokair Group, will be the first in the kingdom under Rule 144a, which allows the sale of securities primarily to qualified institutional buyers in the United States.

Arabian Centres owns 19 malls, making it the leading owner and operator of shopping malls in Saudi Arabia by total gross leasable area as of the end of 2018, a sale prospectus released on April 28 showed.

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