Saudi Zain public issue oversubscribed 269%

Riyadh: The initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Zain, the third mobile phone operator in the kingdom, has been oversubscribed by 269 per cent.

Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF), the Saudi French Bank, which managed the IPO, said the IPO is the biggest in term of the shares being floated.

In a statement following the IPO's closure, the bank noted that 8.2 million investors purchased 1.7 billion shares worth 17 billion riyals.

The telecom operator's IPO, started last week, ran for ten days.

Saudi Zain, an affiliate of Kuwait-based Mobile Tele-communications Company (Zain), is the third largest Arab telecom operator by market value.

It owns 25 per cent of the new company.

Last year the company agreed to pay 22.9 billion riyals ($6.1 billion) for Saudi Arabia's third mobile phone licence.

Saudi Zain will compete with state-controlled Saudi Telecom Company and Mobily, an affiliate of the UAE's etisalat.

The allocation of shares was performed in two stages. In the first stage, each subscriber will receive 50 shares.

In the second stage all subscribers will be allocated a maximum of 1,000 shares each.

Meanwhile, BSF said that the bank, along with its foreign partner, Calyon Bank, has recently established a company named Calyon Saudi French Ltd (CSFL).

It added that the new company would contribute in promoting investment activities in Saudi Arabia.

The company plans to offer a wide range of banking investment consultative services, including consultations on the stock markets, corporate financing, consultations in projects financing and merger and acquisitions consultation services.

BSF is a Saudi Arabian joint stock company established by Royal Decree No. M/23 dated June 4, 1977.

It is affiliated with Calyon of France, which is rated among the world's top ten banks by total equity.