DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Capital Markets Authority has cleared the initial public offering (IPO) plans of National Commercial Bank (NCB), the country’s biggest bank by assets.
NCB will sell 25 per cent of its share capital or 500 million shares, out of which 15 per cent will be allocated to retail investors in Saudi and the remaining 10 per cent to the Public Pension Agency.
The shares will be offered during October 19 to November 11, the regulator said in a statement.
The price of the IPO will be known in the prospectus, which will be “published within sufficient time prior to the start of the subscription period,” the regulator said.
In March, Saudi’s finance minister Ebrahim Al Assaf had announced the decision to list the company, and analysts say the IPO is estimated to be worth $5 billion (Dh18.4 billion), more than three times the size of Emaar Mall Group’s share sale.
“This approval is definitely a huge positive for the banking sector and the overall indexes. The pipeline in the GCC is very strong and the IPO like this would bring more diversification and depth to the market, which is a huge positive,” said Saleem Khokhar, head of equities at National Bank of Abu Dhabi Asset Management.
“We would generally see a re-rating of banking stocks going forward on the back of the interest seen in NCB’s IPO,” said Khokhar.
The NCB made 2.425 billion riyals in the three months to June 30, compared with 1.99 billion riyals in the corresponding period of 2013.
