It was the National Commercial Bank’s (NCB) landmark initial public offering (IPO) and widely recognized as such.

The IPO has been the biggest in the GCC, bringing one of the "crown jewels" of the Saudi corporate sector within the reach of investors in the Kingdom and beyond.

Despite some who had raised doubts about this IPO, the subscription in multiples can only be termed as a success.

The retail portion of the SR22.5 billion initial share sale by the NCB was 23 times subscribed. The IPO’s final coverage reached 2,301 percent and the final number of subscribers totaled 1.25 million, with a gross collection of SR310.7 billion.

The NCB's offering provides validation of Saudi Arabia's economic strategy in general and banking sector in particular, and sets the stage for further issuance, which is expected to pick up quite substantially in 2015.

The bank has been a pioneer in the Saudi banking industry, and was the first bank to offer mutual funds in the Kingdom. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the bank has been one of the trailblazers in Islamic banking, providing a wide range of innovative Islamic products and services.

As the NCB will make its Tadawul (Saudi stock market) debut on Wednesday, it will be a heavyweight entity and further strengthen the position of Tadawul as a diverse and liquid marketplace for stocks whose importance will only grow with the market opening.

The bank announced recently that the net income attributable to its equity holders for the nine months of 2014 reached SR6.83 billion compared to SR6.06 billion for the same period of the previous year, an increase of 12.8 percent. Net income for the third quarter amounted to SR1.87 billion, which compares to SR1.73 billion for the same quarter of the previous year, an increase of 7.8 percent.

It has benefited from the strong dynamics of the overall economy and regulatory initiatives, such as the mortgage law, that have created new opportunities for banks.

The NCB’s total assets grew to reach SR438 billion compared to SR367 billion at the end of the same period of the previous year. Total shareholders’ equity reached SR46.3 billion compared to SR41.9 billion at the end of the same period in the previous year.

The NCB is, of course, a market driver that is largely independent of oil and hence consistent with the diversification theme.

Many analysts see a great deal of upside to the stock price as a result of the growth momentum, asset quality and margins. And rightly so.

We have no doubt that the stock will do well. After all, the NCB is an established brand with solid and improving performance in recent years.

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