First Mills Company intends to offer 30% of its shares in the Saudi stock market, representing 16.65 million shares of the issued capital, so that the Saudi market regained some of the momentum of subscriptions in the second quarter after a weak start in the first quarter.
The IPO market in the kingdom has been relatively quiet so far this year, raising just $72m in the slowest start to the year since 2014, down from $4bn raised during the same period last year.
The offering of “First Mills” is the third IPO announced during May, as “Merna” and “Jamjoom” companies announced the start of public offering procedures.
The First Mills Company will be the first company listed on the Saudi Tadawul as part of the privatization program in the mills sector that the Kingdom announced earlier.
The Mills Company expects to announce today the price range for the subscription, provided that the building of the order book for the participating groups ends by the end of next May 25, followed by announcing the final offering price on May 31, according to the details of the public offering on the company’s website.
It is scheduled to start receiving individual investor requests on June 6 for a period of two days, provided that the final allocation percentage will be announced on June 12.
The First Mills Company operates in the production of flour, fodder, bran and flour derivatives, and achieved a net profit of 197 million riyals in the first nine months of last year.
Big prospect ahead
Saudi Arabia’s plans to offer an additional stake in Aramco shares worth billions of dollars are gaining new momentum, and any share sale deal would be one of the largest in the world in recent years, according to Bloomberg.
The Kingdom is working with several advisors to study the feasibility of an additional offering of the world’s largest oil producer on the Riyadh Stock Exchange, and a decision may be taken in the coming weeks about moving forward with the deal.
In the event that only 1% of the company is offered, the Kingdom will raise more than $20 billion as it embarks on an ambitious investment plan to diversify its local economy. The Saudi government directly owns about 90% of Aramco, while the sovereign fund owns another 8%, 2% of which is the percentage of free circulation that was offered more than 3 years ago.
