(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) The executive president of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) has said there is a big appetite for initial public offerings (IPOs) from investors in the Oman market, which is evident from the huge success of the recently closed IPOs.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of Takaful Oman at the InterContinental Muscat on Sunday, H E Sheikh Abdullah Salim al Salmi said, ''As we have seen with the IPOs of the two power companies recently, there is a big appetite in the market from investors to see more IPOs. There is liquidity and we need to utilise this liquidity for financing economic projects, and this is what we are trying to do.''
Asked about the number of companies planning to float IPOs this year, H E Salmi said, ''We hope to see more IPOs and more utilisation of the available liquidity and funds to finance economic projects in the sultanate. I am not sure about the number, but there are a few companies interested in IPOs.''
H E Salmi said the Oman market has not been affected by the Iraq crisis, as has been the case with the other markets in the region that were affected recently. ''Since the beginning of the year we have seen big increases in the other GCC markets, but the Oman market was stable. So now they (the other GCC markets) have been really affected because I think it was a little bit of a bubble there. But in Oman, the market is very regulated and we are growing steadily, which is the beauty of our market,'' he said.
Following the successful closure of the IPOs of Al Batinah Power and Al Suwadi Power on June 9, 2014, the CMA approved the allotment of shares to investors last week. The RO32.5mn IPO of Al Suwadi Power Company was overall subscribed by 10.51 times, with Category I (up to 600,000 shares) being subscribed 5.31 times and Category II (more than 600,100 shares) being subscribed 20.16 times.
Al Batinah Power Company's RO30.2mn IPO was overall subscribed 10.8 times, with Category I (up to 600,000 shares) being subscribed 5.56 times and Category II (more than 600,100 shares) being subscribed 20.52 times. The two IPOs, which received a combined subscription of RO668.1mn, attracted strong levels of demand from both retail and institutional investors across the sultanate and the GCC, according to a press release issued on Sunday.
The press release said that a total of more than 39,800 investors participated in the offers of the two companies, which was one of the highest numbers in recent times. The two companies are expected to list on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) on Monday, with Al Suwadi Power trading under the ticker ‘SUWP' and Al Batinah Power trading under the ticker ‘B
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