RIYADH, 12 January 2007 — The Capital Market Authority (CMA) has authorized MMC Corp. of Malaysia and the Saudi Binladin Group to list a soon-to-be-formed joint venture on the Saudi stock market this year, MMC Chief Executive Officer Feizal Ahmad announced yesterday from Kuala Lumpur.
In a communication received here, he said the joint venture, which will be a property-development company, would handle the construction of the $30-billion Jizan Economic City (JEC) project.
“We are currently working on the details of the initial public offering (IPO) for submission to Saudi Arabia’s capital market authorities,” he said.
The IPO of the 50/50 joint venture between MMC subsidiary MMC International Holdings Ltd. and Saudi Binladin Group was expected to raise substantial funds.
“We are targeting 2007 for the IPO,” Feizal said in the statement. “We are now monitoring the market carefully as it will probably involve a large market capitalization.”
The joint-venture firm, which will float 30 percent of its shares, needs some $12 billion to develop part of JEC.
“This is one of our major plans to raise funds but nothing is concrete yet,” he said.
Feizal said the joint venture company would kick start the project by developing the power plant and negotiating power rates with Saudi authorities.