JEDDAH, 23 March 2008 -- The Capital Market Authority (CMA) will soon announce the dates for the initial public offerings (IPOs) of the newly licensed land-phone companies -- Atheeb-Batelco; Al-Mutakamilah-PCCW; and Optical Communications-Verizon.

The three companies have already presented their IPO applications to the CMA with necessary documents to sell 25 percent of their shares, informed sources said. They have also appointed financial consultants and IPO managers.

Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Ahmed, chairman of Atheeb, expressed his hope that CMA Chairman Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Tuwaijri would soon approve his company's IPO. Atheeb, a joint venture with Bahrain's telecom giant Batelco, intends to raise SR500 million through the IPO.

Atheeb will have a paid up capital of SR1 billion and a licensed capital of SR2 billion. Optical has a capital of $300 million while Al-Mutakamilah has SR300 million.

Atheeb plans to invest $1 billion in its fixed-line operation in the first five years of business. It also intends to roll out broadband Internet, and voice and data services using WiMAX technology.

Meanwhile, the debut of Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain) on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) failed to make major impact yesterday. After falling over 4 percent last week, the market continued to decline on the first day of this week. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) dropped 66.97 points to 9,421.88 yesterday.

The SR10 Zain shares, which started trading yesterday, opened at SR22 and reached high of SR23.75 and low of SR19.25 before settling at SR21 at the end of trading.

Zain shares were most active by value and volume. Over 429,235,531 Zain shares worth SR9 billion changed hands yesterday.

Zain offered 700 million shares from Feb. 9-18 in IPO. The IPO got an overwhelming response with as many as 8.2 million Saudi investors buying 1.7 billion shares worth SR17 billion. According to Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF), manager of the IPO, the issue was oversubscribed by 269 percent.

Zain became the third company to be traded in the telecom sector which had been dominated by Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily).

STC shares fell by 0.38 percent to SR65.50 and Etihad Etisalat by 3.89 percent to SR55.50 yesterday.

In the banking sector, shares in Banque Saudi Fransi dropped by 4.02 percent, The Saudi Investment Bank by 3.54 percent and Al-Rajhi Bank by 3.12 percent.

Arab National Bank (ANB) shares also declined by 1.53 percent to SR64 yesterday. The Tadawul announced that the bonus shares of ANB have been deposited into investor's portfolios yesterday by granting three shares for every seven shares owned by the shareholders registered in the shareholders record by the end of March 16.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) shares gained slightly to SR174.75 yesterday.

Saudi Ceramic Co. was the top gainer yesterday. Saudi Ceramic shares jumped by 6.35 percent to SR113, Food Products Co. by 2.58 percent to SR29.75, Saudi Chemical Co. by 2.56 percent to SR30, Kingdom Holding Co. by 2.27 percent to SR11.25 and Samba Financial Group by 1.86 percent to SR82.

Aldrees Petroleum & Transport Service Co. shares fell 3.26 percent to SR44.50. The Saudi Stock Exchange announced that the bonus shares of Aldrees have been deposited into investor's portfolios yesterday by granting one share for every four shares owned by the shareholders registered in the shareholders record by the end of March 17.

The total stock market turnover was in excess of SR12.52 billion yesterday.

BMG Index Turnover Down 52.4%

The BMG Saudi Index started this week on a negative note. The index closed yesterday's trading session at 514.27 points. The market turnover also went down sharply by 52.4 percent to SR1.6 billion ($444 million) compared to SR3.5 billion ($934 million) registered on Wednesday's session.

The electricity sector was the only gainer, and hence the best performing sector, with 1.8 percent increase in its close. The industrial sector went down by a marginal 0.1 percent, whereas both the services and the telecommunications sectors lost 0.4 percent of their previous closing levels. The insurance and banking sectors declined by 2.0 percent and 3.0 percent respectively, whilst the agricultural sector was the worst performer, going down by 4.1 percent.

By Khalil Hanware

© Arab News 2008