Dubai: In what is Oman's biggest IPO, OQ Exploration and Production has set the offer price at 390 baisas a share. The energy company has completed its well received book-building process, after which it set the price at the top end of the range. (It was 370 to 390 baisas.)
The company raises OR780 million ($2.02 billion) - pre-discount for Omani Individuals - making for the 'largest ever IPO on the Muscat Stock Exchange'.
It is also the largest IPO in the GCC during year-to-date. And also drew in the highest participation to date for an Omani IPO from retail investors.
In all, 2 billion ordinary shares, representing 25% of OQEP’s issued share capital, were offered. The parent entity, OQ will continue to own the remaining 75%.
How demand panned out
The float pulled in aggregate demand of OR2.1 billion ($5.4 billion) from local, regional and international investors across Category I and Category II offerings. The books were 2.7x oversubscribed (including that from anchor investors) at the final IPO price.
There was 'strong support' from overseas institutional investors, generating more than OR1 billion demand (excluding anchors) in the Category I offering. It meant an oversubscription of 3.4x, with the IPO 2.6 times bigger than the previous largest IPO in Oman. (Institutional investors who submitted orders at 390 baisas per share, and will be allocated c. 29.8% of their order demand.)
There were over 113,000 individual subscribers generating more than OR610 million participating in the Category II offering.
"This makes it the largest ever retail demand for IPO on MSX, resulting in oversubscription levels of 2.2x," said a statement.
"The broad support received from both institutional and retail investors across both the Category I and Category II offerings is a testament to our business model, the high quality of our portfolio and our ambitious growth strategy," said Ahmed Al-Azkawi, CEO. (And) the 'combination of which presents a compelling value proposition now endorsed by the global investor community'.
