After a miserable first quarter this year, IPO activity seems to be picking up again, thanks to four recent, oversubscribed insurance IPOs in Saudi Arabia and a fully-subscribed IPO for Vodafone Qatar.
According to Zawya data, mirroring global trends, IPO offerings in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) declined by a whopping 97.6 per cent during the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period in 2008. Mena markets raised $99.15 million (Dh364m) in three IPOs in Q1 2009 compared with $4.09 billion raised from 17 IPOs in Q1 2008.
However, the recent oversubscriptions of the IPOs of Al Rajhi Co for Co-operative Insurance (747 per cent), ACE Arabia Co-operative Insurance (600 per cent), AXA Co-operative Insurance Company (267 per cent) and Weqaya Takaful Insurance and Reinsurance (200 per cent) point at a change in the trend. IPO offers for all four Saudi insurance companies, which between them were seeking SR260m (Dh254m) from the market, closed in April.
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