JEDDAH, 16 July 2007 — The Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG) will invest its earnings from the initial public offering of its subsidiary Saudi Printing & Packaging Company (SPPC) to strengthen the group’s leading position in the publishing industry, it was announced yesterday.
“The amount will be used to improve content and develop knowledge industry making use of the latest and advanced technology available in the world,” said Prince Faisal bin Salman, chairman of SRMG. SPPC made SR396 million from the IPO, which ended last Wednesday.
SPPC’s shares, which started trading yesterday on Tadawul, jumped 126.14 percent to SR49.75. The SR22 SPPC shares opened at SR64 and reached as high as SR66 and touched a low of SR48 during trading. SPPC shares are trading in the services sector.
Prince Faisal highlighted SRMG’s strong financial position and liquidity, adding that the earnings from the SPPC IPO would further improve its position.
“Even without the IPO amount, SRMG’s financial position remains strong, enabling it to carry out its strategic plans and projects while ensuring high level of quality in all its products,” the chairman said. SRMG can provide good monetary supply through its operational activities, he added.
Asked whether the amount received from the IPO would be used for expansion projects, the chairman said: “The amount will definitely help the group’s subsidiary companies to diversify their investments in areas such as content management, information technology and knowledge industry, acquiring the latest technology available in world market.”
SRMG officials have started contacting international companies specialized in information technology and content management a few months ago in order to discuss prospects of partnership and cooperation in the field, he added.
“We expect that within the next few months we’ll be able to announce actual projects in this field after receiving approval from the board of directors,” he said.
SPPC was the first printing company in the Middle East to launch an IPO. More than 1.3 million subscribers invested over SR540 million in the five-day offering, which was managed by Samba Financial Group.
The company offered 18 million shares worth SR396 million in the IPO, including 5.4 million to 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 to individual investors were oversubscribed by 455 percent,” said Eissa Al-Essa, the CEO of Samba. As a result, the bank increased the allocation to individual subscribers from 5.4 million to nine million.
“The big turnout of investors proved the confidence of Saudis in the future of SPPC — the largest printing company in the Arab world,” Al-Eissa said.
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.
Saudi Arabia is considered the largest printing market in the Gulf Cooperation Council accounting for 44 percent of the total Gulf market of SR6.7 billion ($1.7 billion). During the last three years the Saudi market grew at the rate of 8.3 percent, according to a recent report.