Abu Dhabi-based Al Qudra Holding plans an initial public offering next quarter as it seeks to expand in the Arab world.
Al Qudra, set up in 2005 with share capital of 550 million dirhams ($149.8 million), will sell about 25 percent of its stock and list on the Abu Dhabi bourse, the firm's Chairman Salah Salem al-Shamsi told Reuters by telephone from Dubai.
"We are looking at Yemen, Syria, Morocco and Algeria," Shamsi said of the company's expansion plans.
"We will offload a small portion, about 25 percent, through a public share offering, sometime in the first quarter of 2008 and then list the company on the Abu Dhabi Securities Market," Shamsi said, declining to give details on how much the company is planning to raise.
Dubai-based investment bank Shuaa Capital is advising Al Qudra on the share sale, Shamsi said. Makram Kubeisy, managing director of investment banking at Shuaa, could not immediately be reached for comment.
"We are also looking at some Asian markets, like Vietnam and India, where the potential in real estate development is very good," said Shamsi. "It is a natural trend to go public to get the benefits of a publicly listed company."
Gulf Arab initial public offerings fell 4 percent in the first nine months to $5.9 billion as investor demand declined, especially in Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, said a report by Abu Dhabi-based private equity firm Gulf Capital.
On average, investors offered 6.1 times -- or $1.3 billion per sale -- more than companies were seeking to raise during the nine months to Sept. 30, compared with almost 47 times more in the year-earlier period, Gulf Capital said.
It also cut its forecast for the value of announced and manager-assigned IPOs for the following three years to $7.9 billion, compared with $18.7 billion expected six months ago.
Gulf Arab companies raised $6.2 billion in the first nine months of last year, led by Saudi and UAE firms, and $7.5 billion in all of 2006, Gulf Capital said.
The average size of IPOs fell 38 percent to $227 million during the first nine months of this year, it said in the report received on Monday.
Saudi stocks sold this year and last year on average appreciated almost five-fold after listing. They almost tripled in Oman and more than doubled in the UAE, Gulf Capital said. - Reuters