JEDDAH, 7 September 2006 — The Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG) will sell 30 percent of Al-Madina Printing & Publishing Company in an initial public offering (IPO) expected to take place in the first half of next year, it was announced yesterday.
The SRMG decided to sell part of Al-Madina, its affiliate, on the recommendation of its board of directors, a company statement said, adding that Al-Madina shares would be traded on the Saudi bourse. The date of the IPO would be announced after obtaining approval from official authorities.
The SRMG yesterday appointed Samba Financial Group as financial consultant and manager of the Al-Madina IPO. Prince Faisal Bin Salman, chairman of SRMG, signed the agreement with Eissa Al-Eissa, chief executive and managing director of Samba.
The IPO follows the consecutive successes achieved by the Saudi media giant (which owns Arab News, Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Eqtisadiah business daily and other leading publications) as well as its encouraging financial results in recent years.
“This agreement reflects the tremendous success of our group,” Prince Faisal said. “It also denotes a new phase of the company’s development as it wants to carry out new projects and expand its business horizons,” the chairman said.
Speaking about Al-Madina, Prince Faisal said it enjoys strong financial position and has achieved considerable growth in terms of revenues and profits as a result of continuous increase in its activities aimed at strengthening its position as a market leader. “The SRMG’s board of directors decided to offer 30 percent of Al-Madina for public subscription, after conducting a market study, and start official procedures to hold the IPO,” the prince explained.
He expressed his confidence in Samba Financial Group, saying it is highly capable of managing Al-Madina IPO in the best manner. He commended the success achieved by the bank in managing SRMG’s IPO earlier this year.
Eissa Al-Eissa, the CEO of Samba, thanked the media group for selecting his bank as a financial consultant and manager for Al-Madina IPO. “This agreement renews our constructive cooperation with SRMG,” he said, adding that Samba would mobilize all its technical and administrative resources to make the IPO a big success. He also spoke highly about Al-Madina, saying the company has proved its prominence by achieving substantial growth rates continuously and making strategic expansions in accordance with growing market demand.
Al-Madina posted revenue of SR245 million last year while its net profit amounted to SR68 million. The company expects its net profit to grow this year by 45 percent as a result of new expansions and purchasing new presses.
Al-Madina, considered one of the largest printing companies in the Middle East, is fully owned by SRMG. It owns presses in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
Recently it purchased the Hala Press, one of the advanced printing firms in Riyadh.
All Al-Madina presses have advanced printing machines and other facilities. Apart from printing SRMG publications it extends services such as printing school textbooks for the Ministry of Education, specialized magazines and periodicals, catalogues and brochures of other companies and organizations.
“Printing services form a strategic part of SRMG’s expansion plan in order to make use of the tremendous growth achieved by the printing sector in the Middle East region, by purchasing modern printing machines and increasing investment in specialized firms,” the statement said.
