Samba Capital: Worlds largest IPO completed in record time

The listing of Saudi Aramco’s shares will take place on Wednesday in the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul). The issue was over-subscribed with aggregate subscriptions amounting to SR446 billion representing coverage of 465%.

Samba Capital indicated that extending the period specified for the opening orders upon listing the company's shares in Tadawul for an additional period of 30 minutes, as is the practice in most global markets, would allow for determining the price in a more effective way by allowing additional time for market dealers to place buy and sell orders. This would positively impact on the opening price.

Samba Capital stated that the management of the IPO process was carried out according to global best practices and the highest levels of professional standards. This was achieved in record time when compared to the experience of global markets.

Samba Capital also pointed out that the allocated shares for more than 5 million individual retail subscribers had been deposited in their portfolios less than 18 hours after the announcement of the final price.

The listing and trading of the company’s shares on Tadawul will start just four working days after the end of the subscription phase following the refund of the surplus subscription monies for individual retail subscribers on Friday (Dec. 6). This timeframe is shorter than even the global markets standard.

Previously, Samba Capital had announced the allocation mechanics and the final results of the retail subscriptions, following the reconciliation and audit by the Receiving Banks. The number of individual subscribers was 5.056 million, with a total subscription value of SR49.2 billion.

Saudi subscribers were allocated 96.6% of the retail offering and non-Saudis (expatriates and GCC nationals) 3.4%. The mechanics of the share allocation process for the Retail Tranche was based on the allocation of up to 1,500 shares for every subscriber, which represented 97.5% of the total number of individual subscribers, with the remaining shares allocated on a pro rata basis at 10.941%.

For the Institutional Tranche, the final value of subscriptions totaled SR397 billion, which represented an oversubscription of 620% of the 2 billion shares offered in the Institutional Tranche amounting to SR64 billion (assuming no exercise of the purchase option).

This was allocated according to the following percentages to the qualifying entities authorized to subscribe in this Tranche:

• Saudi companies (including listed companies, private companies, insurance companies and authorized persons), 37.5%.

• Public funds, private funds and funds managed by authorized persons, 26.3%.

• Saudi government institutions, 13.2%.

• Non-Saudi investors (including GCC investors, qualified foreign investors and non-resident investors through swap agreements), 23.1%. — SG