Stock Escalation

Gulf sees boom in IPOs as Spinneys soars on debut

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul exchange has more than 10 companies waiting to go public and another 50 with pending applications

The headquarters of UAE supermarket chain Spinneys. (Photo: Spinneys)

Initial stock offerings are proliferating across the Gulf. Spinneys supermarket chain is the latest UAE company to go public with its shares soaring as much as 11% on Thursday in its trading debut on the Dubai Financial Market.

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock exchange, meanwhile, has more than 10 companies in its pipeline waiting to launch IPOs and another 50 that have applied for listings, CEO Mohammed Al-Rumaih told Bloomberg.

“The good thing about those IPOs is not just the number but the diversity,” he said. “They are from different sectors, different sizes in different stages in their life cycle.”

The kingdom’s Dr. Soliman Abdul Kader Fakeeh Hospital sold out its offering within an hour last week, raising more than $760 million and making it the largest Saudi IPO so far this year.