Sabic’s IPO offer for Yansab commences on December 17

13-Dec-05

Sabic is offering 35% of the Yanbu National Petrochemicals Company (Yansab) on the Red Sea coast which will have a paid-up capital of SR5.625 billion Saudi ($1.50 billion) and is due to start production in 2008. Yansab is to produce 4 mln tpa of ethylene, propylene, polyethylene and other petrochemicals. Sabic’s US$500 million-plus initial public offering (IPO) of shares in its Yansab petrochemicals commence on Dec. 17 for 12 days. A total of 39.4 million shares in Yansab will be on offer, priced at SR50 ($13.33) each. Saudi investors can apply for between 10 and 5,000 shares each in the issue, which bankers expect to be heavily oversubscribed after huge demand for stakes in Saudi Arabia's two recent IPOs, an Islamic bank and a mobile phone operator. Sabic will keep a 55% stake in Yansab and offer the remaining 10% to partners in two of its subsidiary companies, Ibn Rushd and Taif. Only Saudi investors are eligible to subscribe to IPOs in the kingdom.