JEDDAH, 24 June 2007 — Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company shares, which made their debut on the Tadawul yesterday, soared 30 percent. Opening in a separate session, investors were less than impressed by the stock’s weak opening. The SR10 Kayan shares opened at SR12 and reached as high as SR13.75 in a day before closing at SR13.

“Like many other investors, I was surprised that Kayan didn’t open higher than it did as many were expecting to reap profits of at least four to five times the SR10 per share subscription price,”

Mohammad Madani, a Saudi businessman, said. But the low opening price of Kayan was no surprise to the Kingdom’s financial analysts who had predicted it even during the petrochemical company’s initial public offering.

Deemed as the second largest initial public offering in Saudi history, after the 2003 release of Saudi Telecom Company (STC) shares, Kayan was oversubscribed four times with 3.7 million subscribers purchasing shares amounting to SR6.75 billion of the flotation that ended on May 7.

The Jabal Omar Development Co. IPO which took center stage with its float of 2.01 billion shares earlier this month attracted SR6.23 billion, Bank Albilad, the IPO’s lead manager, said in a statement.

Commenting on the debut of Kayan shares, Brad Bourland, chief economist at Jadwa Investment Co., said “I consider a 30 percent increase on the first day of trading to be a success.”

However not all is said and done for Saudi investors just yet, Saudi United International Transportation (UniTrans, Budget), the Kingdom’s largest rental car company, announced the launch of its IPO yesterday. The company is selling 5.49 million shares, or 30 percent, at SR52 per share. Commenting on the IPO price, the National Commercial Bank (NCB) said in a statement, “The price per share was fixed based on the levels of demand for the number of shares offered by the company.” The rental car company hopes to raise SR285 million.

UniTrans Budget has been operating in Saudi Arabia for nearly 29 years and boasts a fleet of over 13,000 vehicles and 11 services centers with over 76 locations and is positioned as one of the top 100 companies in Saudi Arabia.

After falling for the third week in a row last week, the Saudi stock market rose yesterday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) edged higher by 45.49 points to close at 7,067.54 points.

Out of 92 stocks traded, shares of 82 companies were in positive territory, while 5 companies — Samba Financial Group, Saudi Industrial Investment Group, Yanbu National Petrochemical Co., Qassim Cement and Saudi Electricity Co. — declined yesterday.

The stock market turnover was in excess of SR8.78 billion yesterday.