JEDDAH, 10 May 2007 — The Capital Market Authority (CMA) yesterday allowed the Jabal Omar Development Company (JODC), along with seven new insurance companies, to go public. JODC, which has a capital of SR6.714 billion will float 30 percent of its shares in a 10-day initial public offering beginning June 9 this year. The IPO offers 201,400,000 shares.
Prospective shareholders can buy as many shares as they want but the minimum purchase is 50 shares. Saudi authorities licensed the company recently in order to carry out a major real estate project in Makkah, close to the Grand Mosque, at a cost of SR12 billion. Bank Albilad will manage the IPO.
Also yesterday, the CMA approved the IPO of seven new insurance companies, which will offer a total of 35.44 million shares from May 19, the Saudi Press Agency said. The seven are: Sanad for Cooperative Insurance and Reinsurance, (which has a capital of SR200 million), Saudi Arabian Cooperative Insurance Company (SR100 million), Saudi-Indian Cooperative Insurance (SR100 million), Gulf Union Cooperative Insurance Company (SR220 million), Al-Ahli Takaful (SR100 million), Al-Ahlia Cooperative Insurance (SR100 million) and Allied Cooperative Insurance Group (SR100 million).
“All seven companies except Al-Ahli Takaful will sell 40 percent of their shares,” CMA said, adding that Al-Ahli will float 26.45 percent of its shares.
The Jabal Omar project includes building of 40 residential towers, five-star hotels and commercial centers, construction of a road parallel to Um Al-Qura Road and parking area for thousands of vehicles.
“It is one of the largest real estate projects in the Arab world,” said Abdul Rahman Faqeeh, chairman of the constituent committee for JODC. “The Jabal Omar project covers an area of 230,000 square meters,” he added.
