#SaudiArabia’s Modern Mills to Sell 30% Stake in Riyadh IPO - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s Modern Mills to Sell 30% Stake in Riyadh IPO - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s Modern Mills for Food Products Co. plans to sell a 30% stake in a Riyadh initial public offering, setting it up to be the second flour milling company to go public after the government privatized the industry.

The firm plans to sell 24.5 million shares in the listing, according to a statement on Wednesday. It hired HSBC Holdings Plc as sole financial adviser, global coordinator and lead manager and Emirates NBD Capital as joint bookrunnner and underwriter on the deal.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia split the government-controlled flour milling industry into four companies and sold them to the private sector. First Milling Co. was the first to go public in May in a $266 million IPO, while Fourth Milling Co. is working toward a listing this year, Bloomberg News has reported.

Modern Mills was previously known as Milling Company 3 and owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, its website shows. It was then acquired by a consortium of MADA Holding and United Arab Emirates-based Al Ghurair Foods in 2021.

Modern Mills is the second Saudi company to IPO this year, after Avalon Pharma started bookbuilding for its listing of as much as 492 million riyals ($131 million) last month.

The Middle East’s biggest broadcaster debuted in Riyadh on Jan. 8 after a $222 million IPO and has seen its shares more than double since, in a sign investor appetite is still strong in the region.

Al Rajhi Bank and Saudi National Bank have been appointed as receiving agents for the individual investors tranche on the Modern Mills deal.