Rasan, holders seek up to US$224mil in Saudi’s first fintech IPO

DUBAI: Rasan Information Technology Co and its shareholders are looking to raise as much as 841 million riyals (US$224mil) in one of the first initial public offerings (IPOs) by a financial technology (fintech) firm in Saudi Arabia.

The price range was set at 35 riyals to 37 riyals per share, according to a statement last Sunday.

Rasan is selling 5.3 million new shares in the Riyadh IPO, while its shareholders are offering 17.4 million shares.

The operator of insurance platform Tameeni will be valued at as much as 841 million riyals in the offering. Bookbuilding for institutional investors will run until May 16.

Rasan is the fourth company to launch an IPO in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. The kingdom’s stock exchange expects the burst of activity to continue, with more than 10 companies waiting in the wings, its chief executive officer said last Thursday.

The offerings have been well received by investors, showing continued appetite for share sales in what’s been a busy IPO market over the past few years.

Hospital group Dr Soliman Abdul Kader Fakeeh Hospital’s offering – shaping up to be the kingdom’s biggest IPO of 2024 – was sold out in less than an hour.

Water treatment firm Miahona’s offer was covered 170 times by institutional investors.

The kingdom’s technology sector, however, hasn’t seen too many listings. Food delivery firm Jahez’s heavily oversubscribed offering in late 2021 was an exception.

Apart from Rasan, buy-now-pay-later company Tabby and online cosmetics retailer Nice One are the technology firms eying IPOs, Bloomberg News has reported.

Like some of its Gulf peers, Saudi Arabia is trying to diversify its stock exchange beyond banks and industrial companies that have typically dominated it.

Founded in 2016, Rasan is the kingdom’s largest insurance aggregator, operating platforms such as Tameeni and Treza. It had revenues of 256 million riyals in 2023 and income of 46 million riyals.

Saudi Fransi Capital and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint financial advisers, bookrunners and underwriters for the IPO. — Bloomberg