Alamy via Reuters
Poultry sector growing
Attractive investment
Over subscribed books
The Arabian Company for Agricultural and Industrial Investment (Entaj) will list on the main market of the Saudi Tadawul on Monday with a share price of SAR50 ($13.30).
It will be the fourth company to list on the main Saudi market in 2025 after the beauty ecommerce company Nice One and health care group Almoosa Health listed at the start of January, and the online brokerage Derayah Financial joined the bourse on March 10.
Entaj, a poultry company, has issued 9 million ordinary shares in an initial public offering (IPO) for 30 percent of its share capital.
CEO Raja Alharbi told AGBI in February that its book-building process was covered “within hours”. It ended with Entaj’s books more than 200 times over-subscribed towards the higher end of the price range.
The IPO raised SAR450 million, giving Entaj an implied valuation of SAR1.5 billion.
Entaj said it planned to distribute the funds as dividends to shareholders later this year.
Food in general, and poultry in particular, are growing sectors in Saudi Arabia, which aims to be 90 percent food self sufficient by 2030.
“Poultry, being the cheapest source of protein, always gets the highest attention,” said Alharbi.
“That’s why you see poultry on the rise in investments and the noise it makes in terms of local production.”
Recent IPOs have attracted major attention in Saudi Arabia this year. Of the three to list so far, both Nice One and Derayah jumped 30 percent on their first day of trading, the maximum single day increase permitted on the Saudi Stock Market.
Almoosa saw its share price increase by 15 percent on the first day.
