International law firm Latham & Watkins has advised the underwriters involved in the initial public offering of Al-Tayyar Travel Group, the largest IPO out of Saudi Arabia this year.
The transaction, which was 6.1 times oversubscribed, offered 30 percent of Al-Tayyar Travel Group’s share capital to both institutional and retail investors, and raised 1.37 billion riyals ($365.3 million) in May. Samba Capital, Saudi Fransi Capital, AlJazira Capital, and Saudi Hollandi Capital served as underwriters on the deal.
The Latham & Watkins team was led by its Riyadh partners Salman Al-Sudairi and Mohammed Al-Sheikh, along with Dubai partner Andrew Tarbuck.
This IPO confirms the resurgence of the equity capital markets in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia following on from earlier deals this year, such as the IPO of Takween Advanced Industries. The Tadawul (the Saudi Stock Exchange) is clearly now open for new equity issuers together with those deals that were delayed in 2010 and 2011 respectively. "The high levels of both institutional and retail demand were particularly encouraging,” said Tarbuck.
It is the second time that Al-Tayyar has looked to list on the Saudi Stock Exchange, having first looked to go public in February 2010 through a 30 percent stake sale. Lacklustre market conditions forced the firm to pull the process at the end of the institutional stage, the first time a Saudi IPO had failed to complete after receiving listing approval from the country's regulator.
Shaheen Pasha is Middle East Regional Editor at ALB. Follow us on Twitter: @ALB_TheBrief.
Other related stories: