Saudi Arabia continues to lead the IPO activity in the region with seven of the eight issues launched in the Kingdom in first half, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said in a report. It said the largest IPO as of June 30, was for Knowledge Economic City Company in Madina which raised $272 million, about 32.7 percent of the total capital raised in the GCC. However the total amount raised from these IPOs at the end of June was $830 million, down 31.4 per cent from $1.2 billion raised during the same period last year, the PwC report added. The major factor behind the fall in value in 2010 compared to 2009 is due to the large Vodafone Qatar IPO which raised $952million in the first quarter of 2009, it said. “We're optimistic that we will see a pickup in activity in the GCC towards the end of 2010 and into 2011 and that we will see a return of IPOs to the regional markets,” said Steve Drake, head of Middle East Capital Markets Group, PwC. “We are seeing a significant increase in activity behind the scenes and a number of companies are gearing up for IPO this year,” he noted. “There has been a step change in sentiment and with a pent up demand for capital, companies are preparing to come to the market. As it takes between six and nine months to prepare for IPO, we're likely to see more companies list by the end of the year or early 2011.” The only non-Saudi IPO so far this year was in Qatar when the Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development Company sold its shares to the public raising $144 million. The largest IPO to take place was for Knowledge Economic City Company, which raised $272 million or 32 percent of the total capital raised so far in the Gulf region. Saudi Arabia is planning 46 more initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2010 but only a small part of them could materialise because of market uncertainty, report by NCB Capital said. The Kingdom has issued eight IPOs, raising SR3.3 billion this year, higher than the two IPOs issued by the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the report said. In 2009, the 11 IPOs in Saudi Arabia raised SR3.9 billion compared with four IPOs in the other GCC members, raising around $900 million, the report noted. “The Saudi market has been by far the most active for IPOs in the GCC region since the beginning of the global economic downturn….in both numbers of IPOs and amounts raised, the Saudi market has been larger than the rest of the GCC combined since 2008 and for 2010 to date,” NCBC said.
