JEDDAH, 9 July 2007 — More than 1.3 million subscribers invested over SR540 million in the five-day initial public offering of the Saudi Printing & Packaging Company (SPPC), Eissa Al-Eissa, the CEO of Samba Financial Group, manager of the IPO, announced yesterday.
The company offered 18 million shares worth SR396 million in the IPO, including 5.4 million for individual subscribers. According to final results, the IPO was oversubscribed by 36.4 percent. Investors were allowed to buy a minimum of 10 shares and a maximum of 100,000 shares at the rate of SR22 per share.
The shares allocated for individual investors were oversubscribed by 455 percent, Al-Essa said. “In response to the big demand for shares from individual subscribers, it has been decided to increase the allocation for them from 5.4 million to nine million or 50 percent of the total,” he said.
The Samba chief also disclosed that 91 percent of subscriptions were carried out using electronic means such as the Internet, ATMs and tele banking. He thanked all parties involved to make the IPO a resounding success.
“The big turn out investors proved the confidence of Saudis in the future of SPPC being the largest printing company in the Arab world,” Al-Eissa said. He said the final allocation of shares and return of excess money would be done today. SPPC is a subsidiary of media giant Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG), publisher of Arab News, Asharq Al-Awsat, Eqtisadiah, Arriyadiah and other leading newspapers and magazines.
Tarik Algain, the CEO of SPPC, thanked Saudi investors for their confidence in the company. He also thanked the government, the Capital Market Authority, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Samba and other participating banks for their roles in making the IPO a success.
The IPO values SPPC at SR1.32 billion. The company’s turnover reached SR312 million last year, up 27 percent from 2005. It was established in Jeddah in 1963 as Madina Printing & Publishing Co. and changed to SPPC in the middle of 2006.