Saudi Arabia-based Specialized Medical Co.’s shares fell in their Riyadh trading debut, marking the third straight muted listing in the kingdom.
The stock closed at 24.16 riyals apiece, 3.4% below the 25-riyal offer price, which valued the hospital operator at 6.25 billion riyals ($1.4 billion). The broader Saudi stock market was little changed on Wednesday.
SMC raised $500 million by selling a 30% stake, with institutional orders totaling $32 billion. Despite the interest, the deal was just 65 times oversubscribed — the lowest multiple among recent Saudi offerings.
Volatile oil prices, uncertainty over mega-project spending, and Gulf tensions have pressured recent IPOs and Saudi stocks more broadly.
Flynas Co., the Gulf’s largest IPO this year, slipped on debut last week as Israel-Iran tensions triggered regional airspace closures, pressuring airline stocks. United Carton Industries Co., which listed in May, is also trading below its IPO price, weighed down by valuation concerns and a post-listing profit dip.
SMC’s IPO faced its own turbulence after a late-stage revision to its prospectus prompted a reset of the institutional order book. The change came after existing shareholders agreed to return 200 million riyals in dividends that had not been fully disclosed in earlier filings.
It is the latest health-care firm to tap the kingdom’s capital markets, part of a broader push to diversify the economy and expand private-sector participation in key industries. Dr. Soliman Abdel Kader Fakeeh Hospital Co. raised $763 million in the kingdom’s largest IPO of 2024, while Almoosa Health Co. fetched $450 million.
SNB Capital and EFG Hermes were joint bookrunners on the SMC offering. The Company for Cooperative Insurance — known as Tawuniya — subscribed to 2.35% of the company’s post-offer equity, as a cornerstone investor.
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