RIYADH, 15 December 2003 — Jarir Marketing Co., a Saudi joint stock company capitalized at SR240 million, will go public today with an initial offering of SR310 per share.
With this, the Kingdom will have 70 joint stock companies with a market capitalization of SR473.51 billion, making it the biggest in the Middle East. They include a mix of companies in the banking, industrial, cement, services, agricultural, electrical and telecommunications sectors.
Mohammed Al-Aqil, the company’s chairman, announced the flotation at a press conference here on Saturday night. Al-Aqil said the company had converted itself into a closed joint stock company two years ago before it decided to go public. “The par value of our share at SR310 each is actually a discounted price in order to allow the investors to earn profit,” he said.
The Jarir chairman also announced his company would launch an employee share ownership scheme early next year as part of its corporate policy to strengthen relations with its employees and promote the culture of what he called the “Jarir family.”
Jarir has allocated SR4 million for the scheme. “We shall continue to contribute to the scheme as long as we make profits. The idea is to promote among employees a sense of involvement with our company,” he said.
Jarir was in discussion with banks to see how the scheme could be extended to benefit expatriate staff as well. “We will be awarding shares to our employees on an annual basis. However, if they leave they will not be entitled to their whole share stock,” he said.
He pointed out that Jarir has experienced a growth of 70 percent this year, led by computer hardware and software sales. The value of the stationery market in the Kingdom has been estimated at SR5.02 billion, growing at an average annual rate of seven percent during the last ten years, he said. The total volume of the GCC stationery market stands at an estimated SR10.8 billion.
According to an independent study, an average student requires school materials worth SR114 annually. Thus the stationery market, which stood at SR1 billion in 1998, has surged to its current level of SR5.02 billion over a five-year period.
Established in 1974, Jarir is a retailer and wholesaler of stationery and school supplies in the Kingdom with 15 showrooms, 13 in Saudi Arabia, and one each in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, besides four corporate sales offices. It plans to expand its presence in the Kingdom by opening 15 new stores and three sales offices over the next five years.