Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power eyes IPO

Dubai: Acwa Power, the Saudi Arabia-based power and water plant developer, is planning to sell shares in an initial public offering by the end of 2014 and is hoping to launch an Islamic bond, or sukuk, worth $800 million (Dh2.9 billion) or more this year as it looks to expand throughout the region, the firm’s chief executive said Thursday.

Acwa, which has a paid up capital base of more than of $1.4 billion, sold a 19.43 per cent equity stake earlier this year to Saudi sovereign wealth fund Sanabil and the kingdom’s pension agency, a move designed to accelerate its expansion plans.

“Yes, we are still planning to launch around $800 billion sukuk this year and we are planning to have an IPO in Saudi Arabia by the end of 2014,” Paddy Padmanathan reporters in Dubai.

Padmanathan didn’t specify how many shares the firm was planning to offer on the Riyadh bourse, but said the firm is also looking at secondary listing.

He has previously said the firm is eyeing an IPO in the first quarter of next year.

Acwa Power, established in 2004 in Riyadh, is competing for large-scale IWPP projects with international companies such as GDF Suez SA, Marubeni Corp and Korea Electric Power Corp, or Kepco.