BinDawood Holding on Wednesday made a successful listing on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) with its shares rising by the 10 percent daily limit to SR105.60 compared with the SR96 ($25.60) at which they were sold. BinDawood, one of the one of the leading grocery retail operators of hypermarkets and supermarkets in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, raised SR2.19 billion in the initial public offering that was more than 49 times oversubscribed. The company is now trading under the ticker symbol: SASE:4161. The company floated 22,860,000 existing ordinary shares, representing 20% of its issued share capital in its market debut. Final allocations were 90% to institutional investors entitled to participate in the book-building and 10% to individual investors in KSA. The total offering was approximately 50x oversubscribed with funds exceeding SR110 billion. Ahmad Abdulrazzaq BinDawood, chief executive office, BinDawood Holding, said: "Listing on the Tadawul serves as a powerful message to our customers, to our investors and to the sector. We have attracted a strong set of investors who believe in us, and in our long-term strategy of becoming the leading grocery retailer in KSA. "We currently have two of the leading grocery retail brands in Saudi Arabia: BinDawood and Danube. We have 73 stores with over 140,000 products on offer. "The local and global retail sector has seen a significant uptick in business in 2020 and the direct-to-consumer model is already driving meaningful sales and growth. "Saudi Arabia's retail grocery market was valued at SR57 billion in 2019 and is set to grow at 5% per year through to 2024. We are well positioned to capitalize on positive market trends going into 2021 and beyond. "We have several growth levers we are looking at to drive this growth, which include: in-store shopping experience, developing further our online sales through our two e-commerce platforms and maintaining our disciplined approach to cost management, using new technology, innovations and digital tools." Ahead of the market open, Ahmad BinDawood had said there was "very high demand" from both institutional and retail investors, and that they trust the company's strategy and ability to deliver results. — SG
