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Ettihad Etisalat IPO expected to be oversubscribed about 30 times

DUBAI - The SR1 billion ($226.6 million) Ettihad Etisalat IPO has received unprecedented response from the Saudi Arabian investors that Etisalat expects the issue to be oversubscribed by more than 30 times.

“It is first time in the history of Saudi Arabian investment market that a public issue has attracted so much public attention. We expect a large number of first time Saudi investors to enter the financial market through the Ettihad Etisalat issue,” said Obaid Saeed bin Mes'har, senior executive vice president, Etisalat.

On completion of the IPO, the company will raise an additional SR400 million through a rights issue within next six months. Eventually, the firm, which won the 25-year licence to operate the Kingdom’s second mobile network, will raise its capital to SR7 billion. In addition to the SR400 million from the rights issue, the founding shareholders will contribute additional SR1.6 billion. The IPO, which opened for subscription on last Saturday (October16) will close on October 18. The issue has so received SR 20 billion worth bids and expects it to cross SR30 billion on Monday. “While most of the small investors have already filed their application, we expect the medium sized bidders to submit their applications during the last three days taking the total bid in excess of SR30 billion,” said Mes'har.

The Ettihad Etisalat issue is priced at SR50 per share. Once listed, the shares are expeted to trade in the range of SR250 to 300. Investors can apply from a minimum lot of10 shares up to a maximum of 10,000 shares per applicant. On each application form, a family of ten can apply up to a maximum of 100,000 shares. On completion of the subscription process, Ettihad Etisalat will distribute the shares on a proportional basis.

Despite the wide distribution of 5 million shares across the country, there have been reports of shortage of application forms and sale of forms in the parallel market in the price range of SR 300 to 500. “Application forms were available through 1210 bank branches across the country. The enormous interest from the small investors have put the banks under tremendous pressure,” he said. Etisalat has a 35 per cent share in Ettihad Etisalat. The IPO will not affect the shareholding of the founding shareholders. But it will be diluted at a later stage when the company will go for a second IPO after three years of operations.

Ettihad Etisalat had won the license for the second GSM license along with the 3G licence in Saudi Arabia for close to $3.5 billion. Launch of the GSM services is scheduled for early February 2005 in 32 cities.