Saudi airline Flynas taps Goldman, Morgan Stanley for IPO
The low-cost airline could go public as soon as next year
Saudi Arabia's Flynas hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Saudi Fransi Capital for a potential initial public offering in Riyadh.
The low-cost airline could go public as soon as next year, according to a statement from the company in response to questions from Bloomberg.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Saudi Fransi didn't respond to a request for comment.
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund had been in talks to buy a stake in Flynas, Bloomberg News reported in April. The airline is partly owned by billionaire-investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal's Kingdom Holding Co., in which the Public Investment Fund bought a 17 per cent stake last year.
The airline, which began operations as Nas Air in 2007, has been weighing a share sale since 2008. It hired Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and NCB Capital for a potential deal in 2018, Bloomberg News reported at the time.
Flynas is expected to benefit from the kingdom's attempts to bolster its tourism sector as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's $800 billion investment drive to wean the economy off its reliance on oil revenue.
Saudi Arabia is seeking to more than double the number of international visitors to the country to 70 million by 2030 and recently set up a airline called Riyadh Air to compete with regional champions Emirates and Qatar Airways.
Last month, cargo firm SAL Saudi Logistics Services went public in a $678 million IPO, the kingdom's second-biggest of the year. Like many other IPOs in the kingdom, the deal was heavily oversubscribed and the shares have risen 43 per cent from the offer price.