Saudi Arabia’s Amlak International announces intention to float

Saudi Arabia’s Amlak International for Real Estate Finance will proceed with an initial public offering of 30% of its shares on the Riyadh exchange, it said in a statement on Sunday.

Amlak, a real estate financing company with assets of around 3.1 billion riyals ($826 million), said the final offer price would be announced on June 30 following a book-building process which starts on June 22.

Saudi Arabia’s NCB Capital is the sole financial advisor, bookrunner, underwriter and lead manager for the deal, which will have two tranches, to retail and institutional investors.

Major shareholders will be subject to a six-month lock-up period. Amlak’s shareholders include the Saudi Investment Bank and Amlak Finance, a Dubai-based Islamic mortgage company.

“Driven by population growth and supportive government policy, housing demand in the kingdom is expected to increase 188,000 units per year until 2021, increasing to 203,000 per year from 2022-2025 and to 219,000 per year from 2026-2029,” the company said.

The kingdom is encouraging more companies to list in a bid to deepen capital markets as part of economic reforms aimed at reducing reliance on oil revenues.

Saudi retailer BinDawood Group is working on a plan to go public this quarter, two sources told Reuters last week.

The group, which owns the Danube and BinDawood supermarket brands, has hired Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, NCB Capital and GIB to organise the deal, the sources said, with Moelis & Co as a financial adviser.

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