Ettihad Etisalat IPO on October 16

Ettihad Etisalat, the entity that won the second GSM licence in Saudi Arabia, will be offering 20 million shares, valued at 50 Saudi riyals each, through an initial public offering opening on October 16.

The offer is available only to Saudis.

Subscriptions will offer a minimum of 10 shares and a maximum of 10,000 per subscriber, to allow room for small investors. Family authorisation for the subscription will be confined to those family members whose names are registered in the family identity card.

"Based on the feedback we have received, we are quite positive that the offering will be subscribed by well over 100 per cent," said Obaid Saeed Bin Meshar, executive vice-president, Etisalat.

"This public offering paves the way for the commercial launch of our services six months from Sep-tember 3, when the Royal Decree was passed granting the Etisalat consortium the second GSM licence in the kingdom."

Under the licensing requirements, the consortium was to offer 20 per cent of the newly created entity Ettihad Etisalat to the Saudi public through an IPO. The licence was won after a fairly intense bidding process. The Etisalat-led consortium's bid came in at a little less than $3.5 billion.

However late last night, a Reuters report said Saudi Arabia's Trade and Commerce Ministry appeared to block plans by the UAE-led mobile phone consortium to launch the IPO this month, saying the company has not yet been formally established.

There was no official available for comment on the development.