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Offer likely to be 30% of company
Six firms hold CMA IPO approvals
Three Saudi IPOs already in 2025
Specialized Medical Company (SMC), which operates two hospitals in Riyadh, has received approval from Saudi Arabia’s Capital Markets Authority to launch an initial public offering (IPO).
The announcement allows SMC to issue 75,000 shares, representing 30 percent of its share capital. No further details about the listing were released.
SMC’s CEO, Bassam Chahine, told AGBI in January that the company intended to open a further three hospitals in the capital, which will become operational before 2029.
Chahine said he expected the hospitals to break even within three to four years of construction.
The announcement of the SMC IPO brings the number of companies currently holding approval to float on the main market of the Saudi Exchange to six. The others are Sport Clubs Company, Dar Al Majed Real Estate Company, Marketing Home Group, Ejada and United Carton Industries Company.
Although the Tasi, the main index, is down 5 percent since the start of the year as investors worry over the price of oil and international volatility, IPOs in Saudi Arabia have generally performed well.
Three IPOs, for shares in Derayah Financial, Entaj and Umm Al Qura for Development and Construction, have already taken place this year, raising more than $1 billion between them.
Umm Al Qura, a real estate company managing the $27 billion Masar mixed-use development project in Mecca, was the latest to list on the Tadawul. It was added to the exchange on Monday after an IPO worth SAR2 billion ($523,000). Its share price has since increased by 60 percent from the SAR15 offer price, to SAR23.98.
CMA approval for SMC’s IPO is valid for six months. A prospectus will be released “within sufficient time prior to the start of the subscription period”, the authority said.
