Doha: Initial Public Offerings (IPO) in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) showed improvement in terms of offering value as total proceeds raised were higher by 183 percent in the first quarter of 2014 than same quarter previous year. IPO volumes remained stable at two offerings, according to PwC.
“Although we have seen an increase in values in Q1, 2014, we are still not seeing significant IPO activity on our regional markets. In Saudi Arabia there is a strong pipeline for example but companies are taking time getting through the CMA review process,” said Steve Drake, Head of PwC’s Capital Markets in the Middle East region.
Qatar Exchange saw its first IPO since 2010 with the listing of Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC) raising $881m. The MPHC offering received a strong response from investors being five times oversubscribed. It is hoped that the MPHC listing will act as a catalyst for other companies considering to float on the Qatar Exchange.
Continuing the trend of cross border offerings by regional companies listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Gulf Marine Services, a UAE-based private equity backed company, listed on the Premium Market of the LSE in March raising $296m.
Turning to the public debt markets, during Q1 2014, Kuwait Projects Company issued a $500m bond which received a positive response from investors and was six times oversubscribed. In the UAE this quarter, ADCB Finance Cayman Limited issued a $750m bond in March.
The GCC sukuk market was dominated by corporate issuances from Saudi Arabian based companies and sovereign issuances from the Qatar government. On the sovereign front, Qatar Central Bank was a key player issuing two sukuk in January in the amount of $1.9bn and $1.098bn.
The Peninsula
