JEDDAH, 30 December 2005 — After two weeks of trading, the initial public offering of 39 million shares of Yanbu National Petrochemicals Company (YANSAB) closed yesterday at 1 p.m., raising SR5.91 billion from 7.9 million Saudi buyers. Nearly half of the Saudi population participated in the IPO.
The amount of money raised covers 259 percent of the value of YANSAB stocks offered. On Tuesday, SR502 million was paid through 234,000 orders for YANSAB stocks. The IPO witnessed a 40-percent increase in the demand for shares from the previous day as paychecks arrived and the deadline for the closing of the offer approached. The number of shares each client will receive will be announced within the next two weeks.
An official at the National Commercial Bank (NCB) told Arab News that for the first time clients were able to purchase stocks through the bank’s ATM machines. “ATMs have made an impact on the future of IPOs in the Kingdom,” he said. “The results were unexpected. Twenty percent of the orders for YANSAB stocks that NCB received were done through ATM machines. Still the largest number of orders was done through our branches.” Samba Financial Group said that 41 percent of its IPO orders were done through ATMs and the Internet.