Saudi Telecom Unit Sets Indicative Price Range for IPO

Arabian Internet and Communications Services Co, a unit of Saudi Telecom, has set an indicative price range for its initial public offering, aiming to raise as much as 3.6 billion riyals (~US$960 million). The unit, also known as Solutions by STC, plans to sell 24 million shares at an indicative price of 136 riyals (~US$36.26) to 151 riyals (~US$40.26) per share, it said. This would give STC a valuation of SR18.1 billion (~US$4.8 billion) at the upper end of the price range. Saudi Telecom is selling a 20%stake in its unit in the share sale. Arabian Internet and Communications Services has a broad portfolio across the information technology and digital services sectors, especially in the B2B sector.

STC unit's IPO is among a spate of deals hitting the Saudi Arabian exchange this year including Acwa Power's more than US$1 billion deal and Saudi Tadawul Group.  Subscription to the offering shares is limited to two tranches of investors, tranche (A) and tranche (B). Tranche A includes the categories that are entitled to participate in book building in accordance with the instructions for book building and allocating shares in initial subscriptions issued by the Board of the Capital Market Authority pursuant to Resolution No. 2 - 94 - 2016 dated 20/07/2016 and amended by Resolution No. 3 - 102 of the Authority's Board - 2019 and the date of September 17, 2019 .The book-building process for the deal will begin today and end on Sept. 13, while the subscription period for individual investors will take place on Sept. 19-21. The unit is likely to list on Saudi's main market Tadawul within the next month.