On 15 November 2021, Arabian Contracting Services Company (Alarabia), a leading outdoor advertising provider, was listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange. This is the third company to be listed on Tadawul as part of the media and entertainment industry group, which is partly owned by media conglomerate MBC Group. The final offer price for the IPO was set at SAR 100 (USD 27) per share and the coverage of the IPO reached 126.6 times the volume of the offered shares. The IPO attracted strong interest from Saudi and international institutions as well as the general public in Saudi.
Legal Advisors advised Alarabia on listing 50,000,000 shares on the main market (Tadawul), and offering 15,000,000 shares, representing 30% of the company's capital at an offer price of SAR 100 (USD 27) per share.
Commenting on the transaction Abdulrahman Alajlan said, “We are honored to have been chosen as the legal advisors for Alarabia on what was a successful listing on Tadawul. This landmark transaction in the media and advertising sector will help our client in achieving their strategic growth vision and further unlock and diversify investment opportunities available for local and foreign investors.”
Karim Nassar said, “It has been an interesting year for the Kingdom’s capital market with some of the most significant IPOs being announced lately. We’ve noticed strong motivation among Saudi companies to go public in 2021 with an aim to use the money raised for expansion and growth.”
GIB Capital acted as the financial advisor, lead manager, bookrunner and lead underwriter for the offering while Albilad Capital acted as co-underwriter.
The Legal Advisors team was led by Karim Nassar with support from senior associates Hessa AlAiban and Samar Baharon and associate Ayatt Ashour.
Alarabia was established in Riyadh in 1983 and it is the largest outdoor advertising company in terms of revenue in Saudi Arabia. It was ranked 14th among the world's largest outdoor advertising companies in 2018 and 12th in 2019 in terms of revenues.