Miami: Saudi Arabian Airlines plans to next list shares in its cargo business following this month’s listing of the ground-handling division, Director-General Saleh Bin Nasser Al Jasser said last week.
The airline decided in 2006 to private six of its units and expects to raise around 2 billion riyal this month from an initial public offering of its ground-handling unit.
“The next in line will be cargo,” Al Jasser told Gulf News at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meet in Miami.
He declined to state how much the airline, also known as Saudia, plans to raise from the listing and said the date is still “under discussion”.
Al Jasser confirmed the airline would list 30 per cent of the cargo unit as it had done with the other listings.
Last year, Chief Financial Officer Mohammad Al Bakri said the airline plans to raise at least 10 billion riyal through the sale of shares in its ground-handling, cargo and maintenance units. He said the airline would float the cargo unit in 2016 and the maintenance unit in 2017 for “at least” double the value of Saudi Ground Services.
On Monday, the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange, the regions largest, opened to foreign investors making it one of the last economies in the world to do so.
Al Jasser also said he hoped that the to-be-launched Saudi Arabian domestic airlines, SaudiGulf, owned by the Al Qahtani Group of Companies, and Al Maha Airways, owned by Qatar Airways, “will participate serving the lower [revenue] routes”.
