Arabie Saoudite/Bourse : La 2ème plus importante introduction en bourse de 2014 a été faite par le royaume – WSJ
▻http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2014/11/06/why-the-second-largest-ipo-this-year-has-come-out-of-saudi-arabia-the-sho
The $6 billion initial public offering of Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB) that ended earlier this week was oversubscribed as retail investors in the kingdom placed orders worth more than 23 times the shares offered, despite religious controversy that made some investors hesitant at the beginning. The IPO was the world’s second largest this year after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $25 billion IPO and the largest ever in the Middle East.
How big was this IPO?
About 1.25 million people ordered shares at a total value of 310.7 billion Saudi riyals ($82.8 billion) for the 300 million shares, or 15% of the bank’s stock, offered to retail investors. An additional 10% of the bank was allocated to the kingdom’s Public Pension Agency.
Why was this IPO heavily oversubscribed?
NCB is Saudi Arabia’s largest bank by assets. When the government announced earlier this year that it would sell some of its shares in the lender, investors were highly anticipating it as this was the country’s first IPO since 2008. The IPO was also attractively priced, at 45 Saudi riyals ($12) per share, as the oil-rich kingdom often uses such share sales in government-controlled companies to distribute wealth among its citizens.
Did international investors participate?
No, this share sale was limited to Saudi citizens as foreigners currently are only allowed to participate in the Saudi stock market indirectly through swaps. However, this will change because the government plans to open the country’s market, capitalized at $530 billion, to direct investment by international investors in the first half of 2015. It is expected to draw hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to the kingdom.
What’s behind the religious controversy surrounding the IPO?
NCB, like most banks around the world, takes interests on loans. This practice is forbidden in Islam. That’s why a number of Saudi senior clerics said it wasn’t permissible to take part in the IPO. A Sharia committee appointed by the bank later said it was fine to buy shares in the IPO because NCB plans to become a fully Islamic bank in the near future. Still, the controversy resulted in a slow start to the IPO, with 80% of the orders coming in the last day.
Débat sur la licéité :
Halal ? Réactions mitigées en Arabie Saoudite concernant l’introduction en bourse de 6 milliards de $ de la National Commercial Bank. Il s’agirait de la plus grande opération de ce type du monde arabe - WSJ
▻►http://blogs.wsj.com/middleeast/2014/10/14/ncbs-6-billion-ipo-plan-evokes-mixed-reactions-in-saudi-arabia
Several senior clerics expressed their disapproval of the $6 billion IPO because the bank takes interests on loans, a practice that is considered haram or forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence, while others saw the IPO as a test for the public’s trust in the government as it sells some of its shares.
Sur @OrientXXI Le Coran, le capitalisme et les musulmans - Rodinson ►http://orientxxi.info/lu-vu-entendu/le-coran-le-capitalisme-et-les,0568
