PHOTO
Saudi Arabia’s Fourth Milling Company had an underwhelming debut on Riyadh’s Tadawul exchange on Tuesday with the stock closing at 5.30 riyals ($1.41), flat from the IPO price.
Shares opened at SAR 5.32, and hit an intraday high of SAR 5.79, according to LSEG data. The stock fell as low as SAR 5.25.
Across the day, 209.7 million shares changed hands, in over 80,107 trades.
“As expected, Fourth Mills debuted on the Saudi Stock Exchange, opening flat and later climbing up to ~7% before ending flat during its first trading session. This is highlighting investors’ cautious approach (despite the healthy fundamentals), concerning the uncertainty surrounding the possible revision in subsidy that ends in July 2025,” Kunal Doshi, Head of Research the Riyadh-based GIB Capital, told Zawya.
Currently, Saudi milling companies are provided subsidised wheat at a fixed price of SAR 180/ton by General Food Security Authority (GFSA) and they are mandated to sell flour at SAR500/ton. While the current arrangement ends in July 2025, there is uncertainty over whether the government will continue at same level, reduce or even withdraw the subsidy.
(Writing by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)