Saudi Arabia's Tadawul Group to begin trading on December 8

About 598,327 subscribers participated in the Individual Subscribers Tranche, which was 442.53% oversubscribed

Saudi Tadawul Group is selling 36 million shares, or 30 per cent of its 120 million issued share capital, to the public. Bloomberg

Saudi Tadawul Group, the owner and operator of the kingdom’s stock exchange, raised 1.13 billion Saudi riyals ($302 million) from individual subscribers as it prepares to begin trading on the main market by December 8.

The company is selling 10.8 million shares or 30 per cent of the total offer to individual investors at a price of 105 riyals. The subscription period was from November 30 to December 2.

The individual subscribers tranche had 598,327 participants and was 442.53 per cent oversubscribed with a total demand of 5.02bn riyals, the company said on Monday.

Subscribers will each receive a minimum of 10 shares, while those remaining will be allocated on a pro-rata basis.

Shares allocated to institutional investors will be scaled back to 25.2 million or 70 per cent of the shares on offer. Tadawul had earlier increased the size of the offering for retail investors to 30 per cent, up from 10 per cent initially, to encourage the participation of individual investors.

The shares will be listed on the main index of the Saudi Exchange once all listing formalities are complete. Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and SNB Capital are financial advisers and global co-ordinators for the IPO.

Tadawul, which is among the top 10 global stock markets with a market capitalisation of about $2.8 trillion, will become only the third publicly traded regional stock exchange, after the Dubai Financial Market and Boursa Kuwait, once it is listed.

Tadawul Group has four subsidiaries that include the Saudi Exchange, a dedicated arm running the kingdom's equity market previously known as the Saudi Stock Exchange Company; the Securities Clearing Centre Company, known as Muqassa; the Securities Depository Centre Company (Edaa); and a new subsidiary focused on applied technology services, known as Wamid.