Three new insurance companies offered IPOs Saturday by floating 64 million shares, representing 40 percent each of their capital. Eight banks and their branches all over the Kingdom started receiving subscriptions. I'ada has floated 40 million shares worth SR400 million, Arabian Bupa has offered 16 million shares worth 40 percent of its SR400 million capital and Al-Motahedah for Cooperative Insurance has floated eight million shares representing 40 percent of its SR200 million capital. The value of each share is SR10. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) will last eight days until next Saturday while the surplus will be returned Thursday (March 20). Banking sources in the Eastern Province say the insurance companies will not face any problem in covering the floated shares since the shares are not too many compared to the those floated by Zain, which registered a record 8.5 million subscriptions. Economic experts said it was not easy to give a clear picture about the level of subscribers' response on the first day since subscription was being made through different electronic channels such as telebanking, ATMs and the Internet. A financial analyst said that the shares of three companies are expected to be over sold. Speculators expect that the shares of Bupa will reach SR30 to SR40 on the first day of trading and those of I'ada may touch SR18 to SR25. __
