Northern Region Cement Company to sell 90 m shares

The Northern Region Cement Company (NRCC) plans to sell 90 million shares to sell at an initial public offering this week.
The company as appointed ANB Invest, the investment arm of the Arab National Bank, to act as the lead manager and book-runner for the IPO.
The company will sell 90 million shares, or 50 percent of its capital, at SR 10 each, over the Jan 8-14 period, it said.
NRCC Board Chairman Sulaiman bin Salim Al-Harbi and ANB Invest CEO Bassam bin Rashid Al-Mubarak signed the deal.
The NRCC Chief said the cement industry in the Kingdom has a strong competitive edge, thanks to enormous development and construction projects witnessed by the country.
The rate of cement consumption in the Kingdom grew from 16.9 million tons in 1999 to 47.9 million tons in 2011, a CAGR of 14 percent, he said, adding that the number of cement factories in the Kingdom currently stands at 14 with their capacities reaching at 53 million tons based on a May 2012 data.
The NRCC Chief predicted that production capacities of the cement factories would reach 79 million tons by 2017.
ANB Invest Board Chairman Zuhair bin Sulaiman Al-Harbash thanked the NRCC for choosing ANB Invest as the lead manager and book-runner for its planned share sale.
The confidence of ANB Invest in the Saudi stock market was the major reason for accepting the management of the share-selling process and the IPO itself represents a positive gesture for the Saudi stock market during the coming period, he said.
He said ANB Invest has completed all preparations to implement the IPO with all relevant financial institutions, notably Al-Rajhi Bank, Samba Financial Group, Saudi British Bank (SABB), Saudi Franci Bank, Jazira Bank, Riyadh Bank, the National Commercial Bank (NCB), and the Arab National Bank (ANB).